Strings of Fate
by saivensStories
Summary: Fate is a powerful thing. Some say it exists, some say it doesn't. But one thing is for sure, these poor souls are nothing but puppets in this kingdom's coming fall. Or maybe, fate can be changed and give new roots to this crumbling land. Rated T for language and possible gore(?) A humanstuck AU taking place in a post apocalyptic world. Basically an AU I thought of when I was tired
1. Chapter 1: Friends and Nightmares

_A crowd stands before you looking at who knows what. You are short enough to easily push through these people and see what the fuss is. You are five years old and relatively short. You hear some murmurs about who let their kid run around loose but nobody stops you. Pushing your way through is a bit hard and you are thinking about giving up and going back to where your mother told you to wait, in hopes that she'll come back though you haven't seen her in a while. But then…_

_You hear something. Something that sounds so familiar to your little ears you can't help but push through even more urgently._

_You don't go to the front but have a clear enough view from where you stand._

_You really shouldn't be here. You really shouldn't be here at all._

You wake up in cold sweat in your small dark room, gasping and looking agitatedly around you, looking for people, listening for noises and sniffing for the awful scent of death. None of these come to you aside from one of your roommates stirring. You really were hoping to let Aradia sleep in as you don't see why it's necessary for her to check up on you like you were a baby. You're thirteen years old for crying out loud!

Your name is Karkat Vantas and if it wasn't obvious enough, you just woke up from a nightmare. You have these pretty often, so you prefer to slacken on your sleep until you absolutely can't stand up anymore or your dad threatens to stab you. You really don't doubt he'd hesitate to do that, wouldn't be the first time. But you don't hold that against him.

Aradia stands up and you quickly rub the tears out of your eyes. The way she walks towards you always freaked you out, like she was gliding instead of stepping noiselessly. It's fine in the daytime but here in the dark she looks rather ghostly.  
"Another one?" she asks in a monotone voice, mostly out of sleep than anything else.

"What do you think?" you hiss. She sits next to you on your bed and pats your head. You growl in response and cross your arms.

"There, there Karkat, it's okay," she yawns. "Just…a bad dream. But could you maybe try having them when my dad doesn't keep me doing ridiculous work all day?" She stops patting your head and leans her head on your shoulder.

" Oh sorry!" you sneer, " I'll try to tell my subconscious how inconsiderate it's being for keeping everyone up! I've been so stupid when I could've done that all along! So sorry that my nightly torture has been catching up on your beauty sleep!"

"That's all I ask," she mumbles sliding off your shoulder and placing her head on your lap. "Night Karkat. Sleep well, don't let the..." she drifts off, her breathing slowing down telling you she is definitely out for the night. You just scream internally at the simplicity of this girl.

"Good night Aradia," you sigh giving her back the pat on the head. She smiles lightly and stays right where she's at. You don't have the heart to move her and wake her yet again when she looks so comfortable. Anyways, it's not like you can go back to sleep. You glance around the room, knowing nothing has changed. Your other two roomies are comfortably sleeping, one of them talking in his sleep.

Tavros is warmly tucked in sleeping like a rock and snoring at a bearable volume. He never stirs in his leep and he's always looking happy when he sleeps. He's very peaceful when sleeping and you did ask him about that once.

_"Tavros, how the fuck do you sleep so well?! Have you even gotten a nightmare in your life?" You asked accusingly. The tanner boy simply smiled nervously and stared at you as though you had just grown two heads._

_"Um..no? I don't think so," he replied awkwardly, "I have a clean conscience, I guess? I don't know Karkat. I never really thought about it. I just sleep well."_

_"No fucking kidding you ass!" You had yelled mockingly making the other boy cringe. "You smile every damn night as though you had just found the biggest treasure in life! Like our whole life wasn't some shitty hellhole!"_

_"Karkat, calm down," he gulped as you glared daggers. "I mean...sure civilization is pretty…um..."_

_"Doomed?" Aradia piped looking up from her chores._

_"aggravating?" Sollux added._

_"Fucked up," You deadpaned._

_"Harsh," Tavros said meekly and quickly brightened up for the next part "But you know, our lives aren't so bad. We could be off a lot worse. Don't you think?"_

_"If you say so," Sollux shrugged._

_"We have a roof over our heads," he insisted._

_"Leaks count?" You sneered._

_"Sollux was supposed to fix those," Aradia muttered to the blonde's annoyance._

_"Um…caring guardians?"_

_"Oh!' You had feigned a super excited smile and grabbed at the bottom of your shirt lifting it to emphasize your next point " Like when dad gave me these loving stitches right? Man, that sure was fun and caring! Nothing says I love you like a good stab to your side."_

_"That reminds me," Aradia had mused "My own dad said he'd teach me to defend myself with short range weapons today."_

_"Oh I'm learning about explosives," Sollux had chimed "Something you definitely want kids around!"_

_"I give up," Tavros sighed and from then on, pretty much refused to talk to you for an awfully long time._

Sollux on the other hand was probably your best friend around here. He could see things your way and was probably more miserable than you. He certainly was snarky enough. He was sprawled on his bed snoring like there was no tomorrow. He says it's a sinus problem which due to his awfully nasal voice, you don't doubt for one second. He snorts like a pig and you crack a smile. Yeah, he's definitely your best friend and probably the only guy in the world you'd take shit from. And manages to care about you all the same. He snorts once again and sounds a bit startled.

You stare in his general direction as he begins sitting up groggily.

"Morning sunshine, "You say sarcastically. " Sleep well?"

"Kk?" He mumbles, "you awake?"

"No, I'm not," you roll your eyes, " You're still sleeping and you're having a dream in which I happen to be the brightest part of your day."

"Sounds like a fucking nightmare" he lisps.

"Don't talk to me about nightmares you shit," you growl shifting slightly causing Aradia to grumble. You silently apologize to the sleeping girl.

"What the fuck is AA doing on your bed?!" he nearly screams.

"Shh!" you hush him and he keeps cursing your name as many times as possible. "she fell asleep. I know the relation between you two. Can you guys stop ogling each other like starved dogs staring at food? It's pretty disgusting"

"Oh but I can't say anything about your romcoms?"

"You shut your mouth!"

"Make me!

"I would but your girlfriend is sleeping on my fucking lap!"

"Yeah what's with that?" he asks more calmly. You scrounge up your face in disbelief at how quickly he calmed down.

"Sollux, I," you choke on your words due to how irritating your best friend can be. You heave a ridiculously loud sigh. "Aradia was trying to calm me down. She usually tries that for whatever fucking reason. I don't ask her to, she just does that."

"Does it work?"

"No. I just calm down on the outside so she goes to sleep. I don't need any of you babying me." You both remain silent for a long moment. You sort of feel like punching yourself. You hate yourself so much right now! Your friends are trying their best to help with your ridiculous insomnia problem and you just avoid their efforts like the plague! Is this even insomnia anymore?! You don't know anymore.

"KK?

"Yeah?"

"You're an insufferable prick, a pain in my ass since the first day I met you and hell, you don't deserve the attention Aradia gives you!"

"Thanks man, I needed that," You say sadly.

"Let me finish!" He interrupts before you have a chance to self loathe yourself out loud. "We try our best to deal with your grouchy antics and ridiculously awful things you say. But KK, you're our friend. And even if you deny it, you care about all of us. Somehow, we all know that. Remember when Tavros was freaking out when he twisted his ankle?"

"I told him to calm the fuck down…It was no big deal," you mutter.

"And then you brought him home regardless of you being such a damn runt. And how about when AA burned her hand?"

"she held her tears back and didn't tell anyone until it had blistered," You answer.

"And even then she only told you!" Sollux points out. He pauses for a moment knowing the last one is himself. "And…remember when I told you I heard voices sometimes?"

"You woke up crying once and refused to sleep. We stayed up all night until Deuce showed up."

"If that doesn't deserve any type of attentions, then KK, you have some really fucked up sense of friendship." You both laugh lightly without saying anything once again. For a moment there is only silence as you both think about what you just said. Dammit, your friends make hating them difficult.

"But…" you hear a rumble coming from Aradia as she begins to wake up and look back and forth at you both. "Karkat…Do you remember the day Slick found you?"


	2. Chapter 2: Trust

You stare quite surprised at Aradia as she begins pulling herself up. She just stares at you both like she hadn't said something to stun you. It's not that you don't remember, it's just you prefer not thinking about it. It's not a perfect memory and bits and pieces of it seem so unimportant to you.

"Well?" she asks tilting her head to one side.

"No, I remember that," you mumble and avoid her piercing dark eyes.

"Are you sure?" she presses.

"Yes! I remember you taking the little food I had simply for your sick amusement!"

"You made my ears ring," Aradia giggles and Sollux sort of frowns, "but that's not what I mean. Do you remember the entire day?"

You still refuse to look at anyone in the eye. Snips and bits of that day play before your eyes as Aradia and Sollux stare at you expectantly. Something about running, feeling hungry, looking like a wreck and…Ugh, your head hurts thinking about it. You know you could remember it if you really tried but the thing is, you don't think you want to remember anything prior to your current life.

"No," you lie.

"Are you sure?" Aradia insists. You just nod and she gets that you're not going to tell her, just like you didn't tell her all those years ago. Sollux looks at both of you back and forth.

"There's death in it isn't there," she states bluntly. Your head zips to stare at here with horrorstricken eyes.

"AA, that's crossing the line," Sollux gasps.

"There is," Aradia states again ignoring Sollux and glaring at your dark brown eyes with her own darker ones. You swear it's like looking into an eternal abyss. You gulp and nod slowly. She stops glaring as you look down.

There is stunned silence.

"How bad was it?" She asks. You shake your head and shrug.

"I'm not sure. I don't remember who died how or what if that's what you want to hear," you answer in monotone. "I don't really remember much before meeting you guys which Slick sometimes says is better."

Aradia frowns slightly and then jumps of your bed in a hurry. She heads to her own bed, you suspect to sleep but instead she gets down on her knees and then crawled halfway underneath to drag something out.

You and Sollux exchange confused looks as Aradia muttered about where she put the thing she's looking for. Whatever it is. You realize the room is a lot lighter now. The three of you stayed up all night again. You just hope this isn't one of those days in which Droogs comes to check up on you. Only Deuce is tolerant enough and that's simply because you doubt he actually minds or knows your bedtime. Hearts and Slick scold you but don't give you ridiculous punishments. Droogs will definitely flip and make you do the most perilous task he can think of.

"Found it," she whispered pulling out some type of tattered cloth.

"How is one of your skirts relevant to anything?" Sollux sneered.

"Very funny," she scowled, dusting off the cloth. "This is Karkat's."

"KK wears skirts?" Sollux asks making a face, you glare at him and Aradia rolls her eyes at the stupid joke. You sigh and turn to her as she steps towards you, handing you the cloth.

"If it's mine, why do you have it?" you inquire, taking the gray material from her. You spread it to find it is some type of cape with some dark red embroidery as well as patches of the same color.

"You said you didn't want to see it again," Aradia explains, "You threw a huge tantrum about it and Slick said to get rid of it. But…I didn't. I don't know why, I thought you'd want it again sometime or maybe it had some meaning to you."

You freeze up, your arms rigid at the simple sight of this old, useless piece of cloth. It does remind you of something but you're not sure of what it is exactly. You shake your head and put down the cape. By now Tavros is finally up, though looking pretty groggy and pretty tired. He just sort of looks over to you guys and you ignore him.

"I…Don't think so," you sigh. Aradia gives you a skeptical look.

"Are you sure you don't know?" she interrogates, "Or do you just don't want to tell us?" You frown and feel your face hot with anger.

"Either way it's clear I'm not going to tell you!" you yell, no longer caring to keep your voice down. You stand abruptly from your bed and stand looking up at the slightly taller girl. "Why the fuck do you want to know?! Why the fuck should I tell you even if I could remember without seeing fucking slashed corpses and blood each time I think about it?! Do I look dangerous to you Aradia?! Am I a threat to you and your perfectly normal little world?! Or are you just looking for something to amuse yourself with? Because I'm not a fucking toy you little shit!"

The long haired girl just stares at you, shocked by your outburst.

"W-what's going on?" Tavros stutters cringing at the sudden feud between you and Aradia. Sollux just shakes his head and they both stay quiet witnessing the argument.

Aradia's face hardens and she clenches her fist. You flinch and look startled as she leans to speak to you, with a volume you never thought she'd have.

"Karkat there is no way for me to know if you're a threat! Nobody knows where the hell you came from! Nobody knows anything about what happened to you except you and Slick and none of you have ever said a word! My father may be okay with that but I'm not okay with any of that! I've tried ignoring it but you're not the only one with nightmares! I just…."

She lifts her fists and grabs her hair in clumps.

"I can't! I can't accept it," she starts sobbing and you are definitely terrified. "Why can't you just tell me what your nightmares are about?! Why?!"

You clutch the cape tightly and look at your very disturbed roommates. Two are too shocked to speak and the other one is on her knees crying and frantically searching the room with her eyes for something that isn't there. You're terrified about what is about to come from your mouth but you thought about it long enough.

"Sollux," You start and get everyone's attention almost immediately, "Tavros. Aradia."

You take a deep breath.

"I'm leaving," you state, stepping around the weeping girl and your shocked friends. You know there's no turning back. You're not prepared, yet you know this is what's right. No, it's more of an urge, like you _have_ to do this.

The shocked state of the room is probably your only chance to leave without them trying to stop you, at least without a good distance between you. You run out of the room and as fast through the corridor to get outside. You open the door and start running as fast as you can.

"Kid stop!" You hear a deep throaty voice call. You just keep running blood drumming in your ears. You hear steps behind you, coming closer and closer. You try running faster but you're breathing is already heavy and your lungs feel like they're on fire. You couldn't have been running for that long, but your body feels heavy.

The next thing you know you hit the ground with a thud and a hand pulling your arm back.

"Alright kid, where the fuck do you think you're going?!" the same voice hisses.

"Let go," you grit your teeth as you struggle against his grip. You're still pretty winded but you don't want to go back.

"Where would you go?!" he yells at you and you feel tears welling up in your eyes. You stop struggling and start crying instead. He eases his grip, helping you stand up. He puts his hands on your shoulder and glares at you with his one good eye. "Karkat why the fuck where you running?! Do you hate life hear or something? I know it's a hellhole but for fucks sake, where can you even go to?"

"Slick," you sob and look up at him. "I don't want to go back. I need to do this."

"Need to do what?" he growls gritting his teeth. "Head into this god awful kingdom completely unequipped? You wanna throw yourself to the dogs? This world's going to eat you whole, kid."

"And what if it did?!" You yell. "Who would care if the world ate me or not?!"

"Your family would!" he shakes your shoulders, lowering his head to be on equal height with you. "Like it or not kid, we're your family! We are one fucked up family but this is the best we got! And we like it that way! You don't consider us family Karkat, is that it?"

You stop crying and bite your lip. "It's not that, Slick. You are all my very weird twisted and only family I've known. Thanks for everything you asshole, but…I don't really know what happened to me before you found me."

"You ain't missing much," he sighed, "You were some runt with real guts to try and steal from us. You looked starved and you kept blabbering about one of your parents dying and the other abandoning you. Kid, you're like many other kids out there. You have a home here but you're no one out there."

"Maybe I be someone," you insist, "And maybe I can find out more about these fucking nightmares. I don't want to stay here my whole life."

Slick looks at you silently and you.

Stare back at him, a glow of determination in your eyes. He sighs and crosses his arms.

"Go on out there then," he says, "Don't come crying to me when you realize how cruel the world is."

"I lived with you didn't I?" you smirk and he gives you a devious grin.

"You runt," he shakes his head and takes out a small bag from his pocket. "Here. That's all I'm giving you. Don't come back." You take the small bag and look at him. He turns his back to you and starts walking back home.

"Not planning to," you state turning around as well and heading out in this warm summer morning. As you leave your mind begins making a plan. To revive a plan you had long abandoned since you were old enough to accept your reality. You're going to join the Empress' army against the rebels.

* * *

A/N: Hey guys! So I'm barely getting the hang of how to upload things here. This is my first published fanfiction, and I'm learning a lot of what to do and what not.

So I'll have you know that I will update this story as often as possible, considerably you're likely to get a chapter every other day or every 3 days. I'll try my best to upload them as quickly as possible. Thanks if you reviewed! I quite honestly didn't expect this story to get any. I just sort of wrote this on a whim.

Also! I feel I should tell you that the story does switch characters from time to time , and is not concentrated around only Karkat, he's just one of the main characters. This chapter was sort of..eh, I need to get out of the way. But now we get to meet more characters.

You are welcomed to ask where a character is and I'll keep it in mind to either write a chapter about them or add them in a chapter.

This story will bounce back and forth from present to memories. Another thing I feel you should know.

Okay I'll just shut up now.


	3. Chapter 3: Waves and Bubbles

You hold your breath as you hear footsteps in the cargo deck. You've been hiding behind crates of fruit for a few days now, taking only what you need from it. You have luckily gone without being noticed and you intend to keep it that way. You're terrified right now, though. Stowing away in a ship is never pardoned easily, much less when that ship is a pirate ship. You begin wondering if the Empress would have been more merciful than pirates.

You're not hiding behind crates right now, rather between them as well as covered in ropes and some type of sheets which you assume to be sails.

The footsteps stop, and you listen closely for any sound that might indicate you are free to move and let your breath go. You feel that your heart is pounding too hard and that's what's going to give you away. Ridiculous of course, but you're scared to death.

"There's nothing here, boy," a grown man's voice booms in your ears after all this silence.

"But I could a sworn I heard somethin' down here the other day," a younger voice argues.

"Just yer imagination," the man replies frustrated. "I'm goin above deck. There's still work to be done." You hear more footsteps and then absolute silence.

You're still not sure if it is safe but you sure can't hold your breath much longer. You exhale as softly as you can and take a few more breathes of air before taking a gulp of air again. It's almost like swimming, except your life is on the line here.

You hear small footsteps near your location and then nothing. The crates next to you creak and you realize whoever is still down here with you is probably going to stay here for a while. You stop holding your breath and just take small breaths instead to keep yourself from suffocating.

"He thinks I'm hearin things," the male complains. "Well if it turns out there is something boardin this ship that's tryin to kill him, that's his problem. " He sighs sadly and you sort of feel bad for him. You wish you could try to say something nice to cheer him up but one, you don't know the guy and two, you run the risk of getting yourself killed. You already ran from home and went through the trouble of stowing away on a pirate ship, you're not sure how long it'll take for you to reach land but you hope to reach some type of port soon or anything to get away from here alive.

Your companion starts crying and you think that is probably the most pitiful sound you'd heard. It's heart wrenching and it reminds you of your own crying when your dad died. When you realized you were completely alone. Your lip quivers and your big, pretty hazel eyes fill with tears.

You're all alone. There's no one in the world that cares about you and the Empress wants to kill you. You choke back your sobs and but a bronze hand over your mouth as tears stream down your once healthy, chubby cheeks. One slips accidentally, muffled as it is, you know it's probably loud enough for your companion to hear even over his own crying. Still you hope he'll ignore you.

You know he didn't. He stopped crying suddenly and the creaking from the crate came again as well as some sniffling. You're dead. You're absolutely dead. You are horrified but you're going to face your death with your chin up. You wipe the tears from your face and look up as the sails are taken off from you. You're expecting some weathered face to be looking at you, regardless of how young he sounded.

You find him to be a boy, only a few years older than you with squinty gray-blue eyes and a very freckled face. He's staring at you quite surprised and tossing the sails aside to pull out his glasses, you assume to get a better look. You don't move, just stare back at him.

"Hey," he greets you, still surprised. You blink up at him.

"Hello," you greet back your voice trembling. He's about to say something but you interrupt him "Please don't turn me in!" you beg as you burst into tears, "I didn't mean to be a stowaway I had no choice. I'm sorry!"

You cover your face with your hands, embarrassed and scared all at once. He grabs your wrists gently and moves them slowly away from your face. You choke a little and sniffle staring back at him. He looks really confused, like he has no idea what to do with you, but like he's trying to tell you it's okay. You lower your arms and grab hold of his own wrist. He stares at your hands with a serious expression. You feel yourself trembling from fear.

"Calm down. I'm not going to hurt you," the blonde boy sates calmly. You shudder, letting out a half choked sob.

"Y-you're not?" you stutter. "But you are a pirate aren't you? Isn't that what you do?" He pauses and studies your face before answering. You don't care that he's just a few years older and talking to you in a rather calming tone, he's definitely someone you feel you'd have reason to be scared of. His shoulders shake in what you think is a silent laugh.  
"Yeah, I sort of am, I guess," he answers, "But it's not in my style to harm a defenseless, runaway girl. Were you armed that'd be a different story." Now you realize why he's holding your wrists, gently but firmly. You just giggle softly and he just grins suppressing his own laugh.

"What's your name?" he asks.

"Are you going to turn me in?" you ask nervously. He chuckles and shakes his head denying to doing such a thing. "I'm Feferi."

That's you, Feferi the runaway 'heiress'. You doubt the Empress will ever accept that, or the fact that her power won't last her forever. You think she's obsessed with finding a way to extend her life; if not make herself immortal.

"Nice to meet you Feferi," he says politely, picking up your right hand and kissing it. "I am Eridan, a member of the crew of this ship." You think that gentlemanly but awkward since nobody has ever kissed your hand before. He looks at you quite seriously now. "Rest assured Fef, I'll make sure you're safe aboard the ship."

"Reely?" you ask, hopefully. "You promise?"

"I promise to do anything in my power to keep you safe," he says solemnly. You let go of his left wrist and raise your hand in a fist. He stares at you a bit confused.

"Raise your left hand into a fist," you order and he follows your orders still confused. "Now put the side with your pinkie next to my own pinkie."

"Like this?" he asks making your fingers face opposite ways.

"Just like that. Now we tap fists and wrists together to seal the promise. But you have to mean it."

"Well okay," he nods, "But, will you promise somethin too then?"

"What do you want me to promise?" you ask confused.

"We're goin to be friends from now on. We'll both have each other's back for as long as we live," he states. You giggle. Now that you've stopped concentrated on being scared, you notice Eridan has a sort of wavy way of speaking, his w's and v's seem elongated but not sounding emphasized, just sort of wavy and awkward. It's a bit of a stutter though not quite slow enough. Maybe that's the way pirates talk? You yourself speak in a very bubbly type of tone with emphasis on words.

"You got it!" you smile happily," Now we have to say it together."

"Alright."  
"I promise," you both say in unison tapping your fists together, your skin tones quite different.

"Who taught you that?" he asks you curiously.

"My dad did," you answer with a bittersweet tone. "He said it would help both of the ones promising to remember promises and said that he actually came up with that when he and his friend went around the land. They did a lot of great things together until his friend died. My dad was reely coral. He always made me smile"

"I wish my dad was like that," Eridan sighs. "He's always putting me down and I feel like he is never goin a be proud a me."

"Maybe he is proud of you! He just doesn't show it," you encourage.

"You think?" he asks with a smile playing on his lips. You hope he doesn't notice that you are trying to get as much information about him as subtly as possible so as to hold an upper hand. It sounds cold and heartless and sort of pains you to do it, but weighing your options, you value your life more than some boy you feel is quite pitiful.

"I'm shore of it!" you exclaim and he smiles. "You know, you're the first friend I've ever had." You can't take without giving anything, so you share a small amount of truth to keep the conversation going.

"I am?" he questions. "Were you locked away in a tower or somefin?"

"You could say that," you muse, "Nobody really liked me."

"Then we're on the same boat," Eridan shrugged. You just start laughing. "What?

"Are you doing it on porpoise?" you laugh. Wow, he's really doing fish puns just because you did them. Right now you wonder who is more desperate. Ah, but you don't hate the boy. Maybe in time you will come to trust him.

"What? The puns?" he grins and you nod. "Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. Who's reely to say?"

"Oh my glub," you squeal wrapping your arms around his neck. "You're super coral." He hugs you back. This is genuine. You are genuinely happy right now, happier than you have been in a long time.

* * *

**A/N:**

Clearly a change in scenery. I did warn you that I'd jump through characters.  
Feferi is pretty important here. Just don't expect her to be all smiles and sweetness. That's not how I write Feferi.

If you wish to hear about a character tell me about it or leave it in a review. I want this to be partially reader driven, though the most you can do is choose characters since I have the whole story plotted.


	4. Chapter 4: Forest Dragons

It's finally night time. You're exhausted from your trek, not to mention starving. Skipping breakfast and leaving in such short notice was definitely one of your smartest ideas. You mentally slap yourself rather than doing physically due to the weariness you feel on your arms. Sleep is definitely a requirement and if you have any nightmares you're going to give them a big fuck you because sleepless nights after treks are not okay under any circumstances.

You spent the past hour searching for any sparse area and any signs of wild animals that would enjoy eating you alive. Ugh, for once in your life, you wish Tavros was here to tell you about that. Though just having him around would definitely make you less nervous out here due to his affinity with animals of any kind for whatever reason. You don't hate animals. It's just most of them tend to creep you out a bit and you'd rather stay away from them.

Well whatever you've resolved to taking a long branch with you in case you're in danger of anything since the safest thing you can find is the shade of a tree which you doubt to be safe at all. You slump against the bark of the tree and lean your head back, staring at the partly covered sky while catching glimpses of stars. Lucky for you it's early summer, so it's not too hot or cold. Not that it gets terribly cold but you aren't a huge fan of it either. You just keep looking at the stars with the dangerous branch in the grasp of your hand

You sigh heavily and begin thinking about what exactly it is you're going to do. You have planned to join the Empress' army, yes, but how is the real question. They don't just let any street urchin join. Oh no, according to society you aren't even worthy of acknowledgement. Surprisingly, most of the forces under her command are aristocratic brats whose lives have been served on a silver platter since birth. The lowest being the city folk living close to the capitol. It doesn't surprise you actually, it explains a lot.

The Upper class gets far more privileges than anyone, not counting the Empress since she is the highest there is of course though you're sure that must be its own type of burden. Middle classes get slightly less, but at least decent accommodations. Then there's the lower class like you, which is little to no rights for anything. You just get pushed around and most of the poor starve to death due to food being unaffordable.

That's why most don't make it into the force. It's a vicious circle in your opinion, since in order to get out of a bad life, you have to get a good job, but to get a good job you have to be healthy which doesn't come with a bad life. You're healthy enough, you're lean and rather short but you consider your height normal for your age, it's just your friends are freakishly tall.

The question still is, how to get to the capitol? There's no way you'd make it there on foot, at least not before half a year has passed. And even if you could walk that much, how would you manage along the way to either not starve to death or be killed on the way? You'd be out of money long before you were even a fraction of the way there. You hate living so far out into the country where houses are literally a day apart.

Though assuming you _were_ lucky enough to hitch rides and get enough provisions you might make it alive in a couple less months. You could hunt if you had at least knife with you but you don't and killing things always made you a bit queasy. Not that you wouldn't do it if you absolutely had to but you were never as smooth as Aradia or Sollux to kill anything without a second thought.

If you could join though, you'd definitely be remembered. Maybe they could even look past your poor bringing up and look up to you. Just like that one guy they tell stories about. You're sure they're just stories though. There's no way a lower class like him could have amounted to all that at his young age. Tavros liked to believe in those stories and you humored him too though you always found it a bunch of tall tale lies the townsfolk like to tell to their kids so they feel they can amount to something. Right now, you really believe in those stories. You must be really tired to feel so stupidly hopeful.

Your eyes sting and you know they're only going to stop stinging if you close them. Still you can't help but feel alert for noises. Alert for...anything. You slowly ease your grip on the branch and everything just sort of goes dark for a moment. A moment of absolute bliss with your mind forgetting about impending dangers, or anything that might be lurking in the shadows. Besides, who cares if the world eats you whole anyway?

You're startled by a heavy rustle in the bushes. You jolt awake and clutch the branch tightly while you listen at the loud sound. Just as sudden as it started, it stops. You scan around looking for the source of the noise while pulling yourself to your feet cautiously. You gulp down your fear and take a tentative step forward in the dark. You jump as another rustle sounds from behind you. There's another direction. This is becoming really unnerving. You back away from the tree and as you do so something taps lightly against your back but at this point it's enough to make you jump terrified. You whip around quickly and pointing the branch threateningly at whatever it is that touched you.

You lower the branch feeling like an idiot, yet still startled. You don't recall a plush being there, much less hanging in such a gruesome manner with a noose tied around it's little plush head. You'd expect it to be some sick joke but the noose looks just about perfect to you. Not that you've ever really seen one, but you assume them to look similar like the snares you used to make back home. Whatever this is for, it's still quite sickening and disturbing.

"God, that's creepy," you mutter poking the plush with a branch.

"Well excuse me for having a hobby," a voice calls from behind you. You let out a gasp and turn yet fucking again, to see who this is. You don't find anyone and you realize, it wasn't just from behind but also...You tilt your head up to find someone sitting on a thick branch above the tree. You see a glinting, wide smile and are vaguely reminded about a bedtime story.

"What's wrong boy? Can't talk?" the person interrogates, ending with blood curdling chuckle. Though it's a bit hard to tell from the voice, you assume it's a girl who either likes to sound creepy or simply some weirdo with issues. You just frown and she breaks into a fit of giggles.

"You know, it's very rude not to answer if you can. A lower class like yourself should display more manners and abide by law to at least address a lady," she begins, her tone a bit more serious. "Could call for a hanging though I haven't gotten to do a real one yet so anything could go wrong. The noose might not be tight enough and you could slip through and fall to your death instead. But if it's too tight I might break your windpipe instead of letting you hang and sputter. But if..."

"Shut the fuck up!" you yell as each of her concerns for her execution method chill you more and more to the bone. She stops talking and smiling for a moment. Then she stands up and you notice a reddish glint outlining where you assume her eyes must be.

"You're funny," she cackles manically, ending it as though she laughed so hard until she cried. "Oh, I thought I had you with that one. You're kinda cute too, but I simply must know. What is such a charming young man as yourself doing here in my wonderful forest?"

"Your forest?" you sneer ignoring how red your face must be, and she begins balancing herself to the trunk of the tree.

"Yep, my forest," she confirms leaning against the trunk. "I live here dummy. I take it you're new around here since I've never smelled such a delightful smell as yours. What is that, like strawberries or something?"

"What?" you ask confused. Smell? "Wait were you the one trying to scare me rustling in the bushes?!"

"Never mind," she sighs then tilts her head to address your second question. "Scare you? I haven't been down from my tree all night. You must be talking about the dragon." This girl is completely insane. Living out here on her own must have affected her somehow.

"There's no such thing as a dragon!" you yell. She begins walking down the branch again, toward the rope tied on it and begins pulling the plush toy up.

"Sure there is," she counters, "Just because you haven't seen one doesn't mean they don't exist. I've never seen one and I know they exist. You really should get off the ground though. She doesn't take kindly to strangers. She can be a bit overprotective when my sister isn't here. I wouldn't like you getting hurt, you're a great convertionalist."

"Fuck you and your imaginery dragon," you scowl. You hear her huff.

"Are you always this difficult? Geez," she grumbles. "But I'll be a kind host and offer you refuge for the night in exchange for this nice little chat we had."

"You're completely insane," you blurt and she giggles again.

"So I've been told," she answers lightly dropping a rope ladder. "There. Just make your way up and I'll show you around."

"What makes you think I'll trust you?" you demand. "Or that you can trust me."

"Well, you're a lame kid without a weapon and I could easily overpower you. As for the first one, there isn't much choice is there? Unless of course you're dying to meet the dragon, which meeting her I guarantee you'll be dead. I take you have heard those awful tales told about how vicious dragons are; monstrous creatures that breathe fire and could crush you with their enormous claws. I wish I could tell you that's all legends but they are surprisingly accurate."

You look down at your feet and begin weighing your options. On one hand there's a psychotic girl and on the other there's a vicious monster you have no intention of finding whether is real or not. You grab the ladder and against your better judgement, being climbing.

You expect her to try something nasty like dropping the ladder but she never comes close. You make it on the branch and very carefully try to stand up. The branch is wide so your footing isn't lost which is something quite fortunate since a fall from this height could mean certain death. The girl turns to you and offers you her hand. You take it and she gives you a light shake.

"I'm Terezi," she introduces herself. You hesitate before telling her your name and you can tell she feels slightly offended.  
"Karkat," you mutter and she smiles. From this close you can make out some of her features. She has a wide smile and rather dark skin. She's not much taller than you either, you'd say you're about the same height though you could be wrong. She begins walking back to the trunk carefully, conscious of your balance and inexperience of walking on tree branches.

"It's nice to meet you Karkles," Terezi giggles as she stands in front of the trunk. You blush indignantly from the given nickname. She doesn't know you well enough to give you such a nickname! You don't say anything because you actually feel welcomed by been given the silly name. "There's steps nailed on here. The house is right above."

Terezi begins climbing up the steps with you following her. It's not a great deal amount of boards, but you think it's pretty dangerous to pull yourself up like this. You've had to catch yourself several times in near falls as opposed to Terezi's swift and skilled climbing. Once you're up, you notice what you stand on feels solid and sturdy. It would never occur to you that a platform so high up could feel almost like standing on firm ground.

"Don't look so surprised, building things like this only require finding the right tree. Well and knowing how to nail boards," she comments. "Now if you'll be so kind as to step inside. You see the open doorway and look at Terezi hesitantly. Then you sigh heavily and enter the brightly lit room with Terezi right on your heels. "What do you think?"

You step into a crazy arrangement of color. Purple on some walls, other walls with a very strange shade of teal and scribbling on the wall that you're not sure what they are.

"It's very...colorful," you comment. " Why did you use so many damn colors?"

"Why not?" she shrugs. She smirk trying not to laugh at her response. She's proven to be frustrating but you see that she likes jokes. "Take a seat anywhere you like. Care for a snack?"

"I.." your stomach rumbles which is quite embarrassing but Terezi's response is the usual cackle.

"Gotcha," she dismisses and walks into another room, leaving you entirely alone in this oddly colored room. You look around and find many, similarly styled plush toys like the one that was hanging from the tree earlier. In a corner lay many cutouts and the head of one half stuffed with only one button eye. Maybe she makes these herself? But why is she intent on hanging them?

You don't trust Terezi and her odd tendencies, but you're trying to get to know what she's interested in so as to know something about her. You notice a cane against a wall with a dragon head as the handle for the cane. You've never seen a cane like that.

So what she likes is hanging things, dragons and colors obviously.

You sit down on the rug in the room with your legs crossed. Sitting on the floor isn't terribly uncomfortable and honestly, you're fearing to find needles or a noose in between pillows.

Terezi walks in carrying some bread and juice. You notice she's definitely around your height, she has shoulder length black hair and dark skin. As for her eyes you don't know, since they are covered with some red glasses. Sunglasses it would seem. Then you remember the cane. Oh.

"Here you go," she says handing you the food, "light but better than nothing right?"

"No kiddinng," you agree taking a bite. Not eating in a whole day makes anything taste amazingly. "Thank you."

"Eh," she shrugs, " You still didn't answer, why were you in the forest? Are you suicidal,or something?"

"What if I was just exploring?" you sneer she grins.

"You wouldn't survive a day exploring," she teases, "You'd die in a heartbeat. Also, I can tell you're not prepared for anything. Did ya lose your bag or something?"

"No," you sigh, "I sort of left home."

"Oh? How come? Did they hate you or something?"

"Nah. Well I don't think they did," you correct yourself remembering Aradia's moment of panic, "It was more of a personal choice. Why are you on your own?"

"I'm not on my own," she counters, "Usually my sister's here but she has some work to do at the capitol apparently. She's pretty cool. I kind of miss her, I haven't heard from her in a while, but I also haven't heard from a good friend of hers. I think they're just busy. Nobody thought they'd make it as far as they did."

"How come?"

"Well my sister is part of a nearly exclusive male division so everybody thought she'd give up, but I knew she wouldn't. She's the best there is and works for the Great High Regent himself. Not that she likes him very much, she says he's really creepy. And the other guy..well he's from basically the same class as you."

"That has to be a joke," you scoff.

"No, really! To what I can tell he's the Empress' favorite General. He says being a general is really hard work, specially when he still has to work at getting his own troops to respect him. He's peculiar though...not that I can't say the same about my sister."

"I really didn't think the stories were true. Are you making it up, like the dragon?" You ask skeptically. She frowns.

"I didn't make up the dragon! She's real and maybe she should tear you to pieces! Would you believe she exists then?!" she growls at you.

"Gee,z sorry. It's just the idea of a living, breathing dragon is pretty fucking out there. How can such a huge fucking thing stay hidden?" You grumble.

"She just does," Terezi crosses her arms.

"Sure," you shrug, rolling your eyes. Now you're both a bit angry which warrants for silence.

"Wait, going back to that. Did you leave to go to the capitol?" Terezi asks breaking the silence.

"Maybe I did," you shrug. She stays quiet, looking at her hands, now this makes you curious. "Why?"

"Well...If you are...I want to go too," she mutters you just stare at her. "I love my tree but this forest is all I've ever known. And I really want to pursue the same career path as my sister. But she'd never let me. And now you'r probably going to say no too because I'm blind, right?!" You stay quiet. That's exactly why you don't want her to come along.

"I'm not helpless!" she scowls. "I can take care of myself!"

"Give me one good reason I should let you tag along," you sigh. "Just one."

"I can provide enough supplies for a trip and know the quickest way out of the forest," she offers. "You'll need me for that or you'll end up dead, from the wilderness or from hunger. "

"That seems like a rather limited reason," you huff. She frowns, but not because she's angry, she's determined to go with you.

"I'm quite persuasive, and tell me, who doesn't pity a blind girl enough to help her? I know you're thinking it." You smirk at her defensive position.

"You can come along then," you say frustrated as though you had no other choice and she cheers for herself. "But I'm not going to be any more pleasant than usual. I don't think I have to be."

"That's what so charming about you Karkles," she smiles and you blush furiously yet again.

"Shut up."

* * *

A/N: It's been so long since I posted a chapter. Sorry about that. I got a tad stumped. But hooray! We meet Terezi! Nest chapter we get to read a tad about the Empress and possibly from a different time perspective. I'll be sure to have that up as soon as possible. Thanks you readers!

-Saiven


	5. Chapter 5: The Empress

_Oh hey! Sorry I'm __putting this up here, but I thought I'd let you know this particular chapter involves our beloved Empress and all of her cruel and unusual punishment as well as some implied content of a different sort which I assure you is not explicit. Just thought I'd let you know. This chapter isn't even 100% necessary, but it will provide with some background information. Also this is probably the longest chapter I'll ever write._

* * *

**8 years ago - Execution Day**

"What am I to do with you?" you hum, you, the Empress, addressing such lowly commoners. Peasants wishing rebellion but do they not know who they were dealing with? You have kept these people together for far too long under fear and hatred for one another for some little orphan boy to try and foil you. He's dead now. But you still have his faithful followers to contend with.

Pitiful, wretched sights is all you could say about the remaining three. You know there were more, but what would a merciless Empress be? Not that you didn't give his other followers quite the beating, but keeping them in prison would sure give a horrible stench to last for centuries. Besides, spineless cowards are never fun to dispatch. All they do is cry and beg for mercy.

There's still crying here, but it's despair, not fear of death. That's the kind of suffering you like. This poor idiot gave you such a delight, you had almost considered letting him live. Almost. You let a small sigh slip your lips along with a pleased smirk.

"Imperiousness?" a voice address you, deep and familiar. You look at the man standing next to you with ridiculously messy hair and a face that could frighten the bravest man. Your smile disappears and you grunt in disgust. Oh, you loathe this man but the thing is, he's a great speaker of sorts. Saves you a lot of trouble. Also, he's like you said, very terrifying.

"Hmm?" you lift an eyebrow.

"The prisoners," he states simply, looking at the chained group consisting of a weeping woman with composure, silent tears from a man and a good deal of howling from a young woman crying for her dear, departed love. Love is not something you're familiar with or care to be. "You cannot let them go free. It would serve a terrible example, and encourage any further rebellion."

"Rightly so," you grumble. Then something hits you. You grin maliciously. " Sounding rather vengeful, aren't we? What wrong have these three done you? They mocked my empire, not yours."

"This is no time to be fooling around," he growls, low, throaty and frightful. You blink a few time out of surprise. It's not like him to use a growl like that on you. He knows it's out of turn. You think he also knows how easily he'd scare you though. You take a deep breath and sigh, turning to the convicts.

"You," the composed woman looks at you, scared, but putting a brave front, "Such a pretty face you have. I'm sure the slave traders shall love having such a rare pearl with them. You'll be the envy of possession. Nothing more than a worthless object."

"I'd rather die!" she yells at you. You glare.

"How dare you speak back to your empress you fucking bitch?!" you shout back, standing from your throne. The woman remains were she's at, holding your stare. You notice her gulp and the smile returns to your face.

"But I'd allow you sparing from suffering," you continue in an even tone, " You've been a pain in my gills for longer than I'd like to admit. You started this. You should have left him die alone, then you would not be here. No, you will live a life of disgrace."

She stays silent and you know it's taking to much for her to stand. The man notices too and steps to help her hold her balance. Pitiful.

You turn your attention to the crying wretch. She hasn't shut up for a single minute and speaking over her has irked you.

"As for you, bitch," you address her and she buries her face in the bloodied cloak she's been holding. You stop, disgusted but decide to use a different approach.

"Ah...Well for you guppy," you say more sweetly and notice the man next to you cringe slightly. "Whale, this wasn't your fault now was it? No, you simply fell for the wrong man. Still, you aided him far too much with his deed. You will be sentenced to death. The dishonorable death of a traitor. Executed here and now." You turn to him and he half glares at you. "The honor is yours."

"Executioner!" he calls out loud, then gritting his teeth. A man with long dark hair steps from the ranks of other troops lining the square. He vows and awaits an order. "Execute this fucking traitor."

The executioner looks slightly taken aback until you raise an eyebrow at him. He vows again and strides a good distance from the weeping girl.

"No please!" the slave begs. "You can't! Please!"

"Shut up!" you order and sit back down on your throne to watch this clean killing. Not what you like to see. You look at him once again. He looks like a stone. "I really wish you'd have done the execution yourself."

"And frighten the public senseless? In time," he rumbles, with a light grin on his lips. "I'd rather not get my hands dirty with this one. It's not fucking worth it."

"Whale if you reely-" you're interrupted by a scream and a series of gasps. You quickly turn to look at the scene expecting to find one more corpse. The scene before you was one of complete disappointment and infuriating.

"What the glub do you think you're doing?!" You scream as you notice she's still breathing, the arrow stuck on a post behind her. The executioner doesn't look at you but straight at the shocked victim.

"Run!" the executioner orders her. She nods and begins scampering faster than you thought her capable of. The executioner has managed to slip away as well though it's beyond you to know where he left.

"Stop her!" you screech a minute too late. She's long gone. You growl and then sigh to calm yourself. "No matter. She has no importance."

"But-"

"I said forget her! So long as I never see them stepping foot in my capitol, they can live by them shellves," you hold your head as though you had a headache. " Now the other guy, whatever the glub your name is."

The last convict stares at you, expecting your punishment. He looks as though he has a little victory with that girl running away. You don't grin for him though. You don't want to scare him.

"I asked for your name," you grumble, "Who knows, maybe I'll be merciful if you give me a name. You seem practical enough."

"Practical or not, I won't give you my name if you don't know it," he answers.

"Look here, I'm losing my cod damn patience but I will humor you, why?" you sneer.

"If you kill me, I'd rather not have my name stained as a traitor, if you turn me into a slave, a name will be the only thing I own," he replies causing the woman he's helping stand to look at him with tear filled eyes and a heartfelt smile. Disgusting.

Still, you start chuckling. Everyone's staring at you. The chuckle turns into a fit of giggles and then full blown laughter. You can't believe this guy! The nerve!

"Stop it! I'm crying a river over hear!" you cackle as tears well up in your eyes from all this laughter. "Oh you're too much!"

"Do I amuse you?" he asks. You nod as you finally manage to control your laughter.

"You're the finniest thing I've heard or seen," you sigh with a last hint of a chuckle. "Ah, if only I didn't have to krill you...Hmm...Come to think of it, I don't. You'll be my personal slave, a fate far worse than your dear lady there. I'll make sure to make every day of your life a living hell."

"Wouldn't have it any other way," he sneers back, adding a glare as well. You smirk again. You quite like this poor sap. Let's see how long he'll last you though.

* * *

"You should have killed him!" the crazy haired man complained.

"Quit your nagging Kurloz, you're not going to tell me how to run my empire," you roll your eyes as you sit back more relaxed on your throw pillows in your palace. So much better than your rigid throne. Not that you don't love your throne, because you sure as hell do. Saying that these things belong to you really makes you happy. You love having things of value or things no one else can get.

"No, but you are acting like a capricious child, Meenah!" Kurloz hisses.

"You would know about being capricious wouldn't you?" you chuckle. He turns away from you and paces in the opposite direction to a grand floor to ceiling window overlooking the sea. You glare at him.

"Hey, don't ignore me," you order. He turns his head slightly to look at you. He really does look upset with you and you kind of wish he _would_ ignore you. Angry Kurloz doesn't sound very ideal to you after a long day of imperial duties. He holds his arms behind his back, clear view to you until he turns to face you.

His face is dead serious with terrifying paint to convey some type of awful monster. You're not easily frightened but something about him...

His seriousness is replaced by a smile that were it not for the paint might look close to pleasant and amiable. He leans down a bit as he steps closer to you with rather large steps.

"What would you have me do your Imperiousness?" he says pleasantly.

"Nothing," you puff up your cheeks and he stands up straight again.

"Then allow me to do nothing by not listening to your complaining and gloating for a few minutes," he states with a light tone in his voice which you know is as heavy as lead. You wish he'd talk to you like he talks to the commoners. A deep, terrifying voice mixed with whispers and shouts would be better to you than the subtle murder intent he has when speaking to you. You just know he's plotting murder. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, even if they give you awful nightmares.

You groan completely annoyed and look up at him. He looks back at you neutrally, now crossing his arms over his chest.

"Sit down Kurloz," you sigh, lying down on the pillows with your hair spreading ridiculously. "Conversations with you blow hole you know that?"

"You say it often enough," he nods sitting down next to you and pushing your dark brown hair aside. "Why did you want that prisoner anyway?"

"I dunno," you shrug, "He seemed interesting enough. Like he wasn't afraid of me or anything."

"Well neither was the other one and you still killed him," he reasons. You sort of glare at him, and he looks back at you with brown eyes. You sit up.

"If we're gonna be talking about why I do the shit I do, you might as well start braiding my hair fucker. I hate going to sleep with this shit all over the place." He chuckles gruffly and picks up your hair gently, something that would come doubtful to anyone when looking at his massive hands. He separates your hair and starts braiding.

"Well the thing with the other guy what's his face, is he was trying to overthrow me," you state.

"Mm-Hmm," Kurloz nods.

"So I had to do something about him. Besides, who the fuck would even like such a wise ass like himself? I shore as hell wouldn't. How about you?"

"Not at all," Kurloz agrees, "That motherfucker had every reason to die. That's one I would have had no trouble doing myself had you not asked for it to be public."

"Aw...Sorry aboat that," you apologize while feigning a pout and he rolls his eyes. "Though, I do sort of respect the courage. He was damn stupid, but he had guts."

"Well you did have him gutted like a fish," Kurloz mumbles. You giggle.

"Yeah, but that was just for show," you muse, "And then there's this guy, Who's name I don't even know. He's like nothing I'd ever seen before. I don't know him or anyfin, but..."

"But what?" he asks, still working diligently with your long unruly hair.

"But," you repeat, "I'd like to know him moray." Kurloz doesn't reply until he's halfway done with your massive braid. He sighs heavily and you turn to look at him. You don't find him guarded, scary or anything of his usual self. You just see him sad. Then it shifts to a look of pure hatred.

"Be careful about that Meenah," he says keeping his eye on your hair. "Nothing good ever comes from the lower class. Not for us at least."

"What are you glubbing about?" you interrogate, your eyebrows furrowing. He shakes his head.

"Nothing," he replies with a smirk and getting back to work, "Just telling you in a way you'll understand. they're all bottom feeders."

"Bottom feeders can be useful," you huff, "They're disposable shit but they're important-ish."

"Maybe you were listening to his preaching then," Kurloz chuckles.

"Fuck off," you respond with a hint of laughter. "This is nice you know? This whole just here sitting here, talking to each other and stuff?"

"Ah, yes," he nods solemnly, "Two, important adults, part of the ruling class talking about their murder of the day as if it were the weather while braiding massive amounts of hair. It's quite suitable, actually." At this point you burst with laughter and he joins you more lightly. You've laughed quite a lot today.

"Why can't you be more talkative and likable more often? Like genuinely?" you ask.

"There's not much room for that," he answers calmly.

"Huh...so what is there room for?" you question rolling your olive green eyes at him.

"Mostly making sure you don't kill half the empire when you are having a bad day, much like you do for me," he counts and you nod, "Making executions and all that fun motherfucking shit. And then there's terrifying the commoners into staying in line. Not to mention training new blood for all the shit they'll see."

"Busy day," you sneer, "But what about the brat?"

"The brat?" he asks a bit confused though you know it's a ruse since you see him tense up.

"Yeah, that one kid of yours," you snap your fingers continuously as you sear for a name, "What's his name. Man, Kurlz, I ain't no good at names. Help me out here."

"Gamzee," he answers. You snap your fingers loudly this time.

"That's the name!" you say victoriously, "What about him? Any time for him in your busy life?"

"He can take care of himself well enough without me," Kurloz answers simply.

"You shore about that?" you ask skeptically. "I'm pretty sure he's still a pretty small kid. And what do you mean by himself?"

"Why are you asking me about this?" Kurloz questions defensively, "You've never asked about Gamzee before. There is truly no reason for anyone to be interested tremendously on that boy. He's smart enough, but I wouldn't call him a genius."

"That's really harsh," you comment, feeling quite bad for this poor kid whom you've seen probably only once. "What about his mother? She think the same as you?"

"Might as well," he replies with clear restraint in his voice,"she went ahead and ran off with the first idiot that crossed her path. Never looked back." There's awkward silence as you bite your lip and cringe at that confession. He finishes the braid and let's go of your hair,standing up to leave.

"Sorry," you apologize without your regular sass. "I just think that's-"

"Not how it should be done?" Kurloz interrupts, "Well excuse me, Empress, I didn't know you had any experience with children because, as far as I'm concerned, you lack an heir of any kind." With that he leaves.

He leaves you shocked, and upset about that. Sure, maybe you went too far, but you always do that. Still, he's never gone off on you like this.

You know he's right though. You lack any form of heir. Kids are the furthest thing from your mind when you're running an empire and murdering something everyday.

You don't need an heir though. You don't want one interfering with your life. If you need one, maybe you'll just look for one through the children of nobles, there's enough to choose at least one from. As for a blood kin heir, you think that wouldn't go too well. Besides, sharing power with anyone has never been something you like to do. You're greedy, you'll admit. Greed is not an entire drive for you. No, you prefer to call it ambition.

* * *

"Why, hello," You greet with the most arrogant tone you can muster. A _very_ arrogant tone, of course. You are addressing the gold haired man from last week's execution. Now that you look at him, he looks frail and worthless at first glance, and you really doubt he could be of any use. He's sitting cross legged on the ground of his temporary cell. He doesn't acknowledge you, just looks at his legs like they're the most interesting thing in the world while his hands are on his knees. Normally, you wouldn't stand for this, but you chained him up like a dog with a rather short chain for his normally tall height. You narrow your eyes.

"Bitch when I talk to you, ya better answer!" you snap. He looks up at you with a clearly annoyed face.

"What?" he growls with an edge of sarcasm "What can I, a lowly slave, do for such a powerful and graceful, upper class lady?"

You grit your teeth and look at his smug face.

"Stop fucking with me," you spit. He rolls his eyes and shakes his head heaving a huge sigh.

"What do you want?" he asks, "If you've come to humiliate me, please get your gloating over with, I was starting to enjoy the loneliness and silence."

You are about to say something back but think better of it and just take a good look at him. Lean, weak looking though quite handsome in an odd, awkward way with golden brown hair and forest green eyes. He doesn't look terribly stupid either. Cunning really, which you don't doubt he is judging by all his snarky comments which are perfectly measured. Not annoying enough to kill him and not lame enough for you to dismember him. You grin and cover your mouth. This one's definitely something. You stop grinning and clear your throat.

"What can you do?" you ask contemptuously. He shrugs.

"Lower class like me learn to do all sorts of things," he explains before you can snarl at him.

"The more cooperative you are, the less likely i am to torture you, you know?" you scoff and his shoulders start shaking with laughter. You glare at him. "What's so funny?!"

"That's exactly what that weird guy said you'd tell me," he chuckles, "Well he was more explicit about your punishments which quite honestly, make death sound like bliss. I used to keep machines like boilers from bursting into flames mostly. Honestly, seeing them burn was more amusing though..."

"You have a destructive edge?" you smirk and his face sort of pales.

"No," he lies, "I just liked mocking people who thought they should be in control. Much like I'm doing now."

You notice him cringe. He knows he's gone a bit far with that last one, as do you, but his fear is nice and you really like it. You really like him to be honest. You rejoice in his anxiety before finally speaking.

"Then you shall keep maintenance here as well," you say calmly, and crouch down to look him in the eye. "Do a good job and I won't have to punish you, Mituna."

His face manages to somehow lose more color, making his skin sickly white.

"Don't be so surprised. I take the time to learn names sometides," you chuckle darkly, "But why would you hide such a positively fishy name when it would actually come to your advantage?" You stick one of your hands through the openings of the bars and hold his chin forcefully.

"Don't disappoint me 'Tuna. Else, your frond's death will appear like a lovely sunny day compared to what I'll do to you. Understood?"

His eyes for once look definitely terrified but you notice that little spark that gives you a thrill. A little spark of rebellion. Of course, he'll know better. Oh, he'll definitely know better. You keep your stare constant with his, not losing the grip on his chin so he can't look down.

"Understood," he murmurs and you smile.

"That's a good boy," you giggle, letting go of his chin. You begin standing ready to leave before a little detail that had escaped your mind comes back to you. You turn back to him and he looks up.

"Ah, I almost forgot, " you begin, "Anything I say goes. And I do mean _anything_." He gulps at your emphasis, "Defying one of my direct orders will result in punishment for you. The worst kind I can think of. Now sleep well, Tuna." You doubt he slept, but that's quite alright with you.

* * *

You descend to the dark place that is the boiler room. You normally don't come down here with your lavish robes not because you're afraid of ruining them, but due to how hot it can be down here. It's also pretty damn loud. But you've shoved Mituna down here for weeks on end so you come here sometimes. The young man has proven himself quite adept with machines. Obviously, that's not the reason you come down here.

"Tuna!" you call loudly. The tall man pokes his head from behind one of the monstrous machines.

"What?!" he shouts back.

"You done yet?!" you yell. You aren't even that far from each other but shouting is necessary if you want to hear each other over this noise. Maybe you should give him something to plug his ears or something. Eh, he's smart enough, he'll figure something out.

"Almost!" he answers. You huff with impatience and begin tapping your foot. He hides behind the machine again.

"That almost, beta mean a second," you scowl. The whirring of the machines really annoys you and you wonder why they can't make these shitty contraptions more quiet.

"Ugh, you're such a pain," he complains, just loud enough to hear.

"Excuse you?" you screech. His head darts up to look at you a bit panicked. "Well?"

"Um..." he hums. "Nothing. And would you look at that, I'm completely done all of a sudden!" He comes around the machines while cleaning his face slightly with some rag and takes the customary, rather mandatory really, vow.

"That's what I thought," you sneer and grab at the greasy sleeve of his coat. Normally you'd be a bit ticked by that but right now you have something planned and it sure as hell isn't going to wait. You get that look on your face and his panicked look just gets better and better. "Come on."

"Where?" he asks nervously as you half drag him out of the room. You just smirk devilishly.

"I'm about to give you a different job," you chuckle and he gulps. "You know where this is going, I'm shore, Tuna." You exit the room only to enter another, less noisy and well out of the way.

"I..." he trails off looking at the ground and sighing, resigning himself exactly to what you mean. You let go of his arm to wrap your arms around his neck. "You bitch."

"Aw, stop," you giggle with a light blush, "That's too kind of you." He glares down at you as you smile, quite pleased with this situation. You give him a light kiss on his cheek. He growls back and looks away from you.

"You don't seem to understand, this is an order you'll obey," you state narrowing your eyes at him.

"I fucking hate you," he spits and you grin.

"That's alright. I like you enough for me to actually give a damn," you whisper as you kiss him once again.

* * *

It's been some time since your affairs with the maintenance boy. He still hates you which in his place you probably would too. Of course you'r not in his place and you are quite enamored with your spot. Being Empress isn't fun and games, it tends to be a real pain and you feel almost as oppressed as the lower class, of course your position has some great perks. Still, you're also forced to do things you don't want to.

Quite recently, you've found yourself forced to take in two young kids after your dear Colonel's passing. Such a shame, he was loyal man and shall be missed but you think he could have died when he's kids were well grown, not leaving little brats to your care. Still, you were the one who promised, so it's your own damn fault, even though you pinned it on Kurloz regardless of him not even being present when you made that promise.

The kids aren't so bad. The boy stays out of your hair often enough, and hardly needs you for anything. As for the girl, well the girl is relatively quiet most of the time though if you find one of the maids scream in terror of a spider on a bed or the cooks screech about a fake mouse in the flour you know who's to blame. It took you some time to realize Jane was the real prankster and not Jake like you had thought. She don't approve of such childish antics

You don't spend much time with Jake, since he's usually outdoors, causing the gardeners and guards heart attacks with his random assaults. Not that you're gonna stop him, he seems happy enough and he's not causing_ you_ trouble. You aren't particularly fond of him just like you're sure he isn't of you. He's an odd kid, for sure. Well he was. He's gone off and no one's seen or heard of him in a while. You think Jane knows where he is or went but she won't say a word.

You couldn't care less where he's at, and luckily Kurloz isn't pressing you about it which means he considers him unimportant as well. Jane looks rather unhappy though. This shouldn't bother you, but unlike Jake, you sort of like Jane. She's a prankster and a bit tough to figure out but she's rather sweet sometimes. So her being sad makes you unhappy, and then no one's happy. You only have one solution to cure your unhappiness and that's taking up a hobby you haven't done since you were in your teens, baking.

So here you are, in the kitchen at late evening making sure there isn't a mouse in the flour. Just as you're checking you notice Jane sneaking out of the kitchen.

"Give it," you say with one hand outstretched and the other on your hip. Jane turns, sighs and gives you the fake mouse. "Good choice, girl. I'd let you keep it but I'm getting tired of a panicked disrupted kitchen."

You put the fake mouse aside, and begin filling the empty bowl you put on the counter with flour.

"What are you doing?" Jane asks meekly. You glance at her but quickly go back to your preparations.

"I'm going to bake a cake," you answer cracking some eggs into the bowl. "You like cake don't you?"

"Uh-huh," she answers, "You know how to bake?"

"Shore I do," you reply pouring some milk into the mix. Jane doesn't ask anything else, but you know she's trying to look at what your doing. You're about to ask why she hasn't left but she scampers off and you pick up a spoon and start mixing. The next sound to reach your ears is the noise of a wooden object hit the ground. You look up and find Jane with her arms on the counter right next to you, her head just barely reaching over. "Water you doing?"

"Watching you bake," she answers. You notice she's on the tip of her toes trying to reach this counter and you can't help but laugh lightly at that. "Can I?"

"Sure," you shrug. "Would you like to help?"

"Yes please!" she chirps.

"You know what the cake tin looks like?" She nods. "Go get that for me." She jumps off her stool and goes to where the pots and pans are kept in the immense kitchen. She comes back with the tin can and places it on the counter while climbing up on the stool.

"Thanks. Now we pour the cake mix onto the tin and use the spoon to get as much as possible out.," you instruct as you perform these actions. Jane looks absolutely fascinated by this. You finish pouring the mix onto the tin and head to one of the stone ovens with it, Jane right on your heels of course. You forgot if these worked for your cake baking needs but you might as well try it out, you don't lose anything by trying.

"We'll just leave it in here for some 30 minutes," you say as you slide the cake inside the oven. You nearly burned your hand and then recall the whole wearing gloves thing while putting things in the oven. "Of course, you should be wearing oven mitts. Not that you are old enough to bake anyway."

"I'm seven," Jane states while stamping her foot on the ground and you grin and suppress your laughter.

"Oh yes, sorry I forget how big you are at seven," you tease and rustle her short black hair. You lean against one of the counters and the girl sits on the floor next to you. "Well this is...fun?"

"It is," Jane confirms and you feel relieved. You don't know how to deal with these kids, for crying out loud, one ran away and the other one has been too sad to even pull decent pranks. You bite your lip before asking a question that's been on your mind though you didn't even think it was important.

"Jane?"

She looks up at you with huge blue eyes.

"Did...Did your brother hate me?" you ask.

"Jake?" she questions tilting her head, "Jake's not my brother. He was the son of one of my grandpa's friends. I don't think he hates you or anyone. Jake's too much of a dummy to hate anyone." She sticks her tongue out at that point in what you know to be her way of showing a type of disgust. "Besides, you're pretty okay. You're always busy but you're pretty okay."

"Thanks," you smile genuinely feeling, a bit fuzzy inside. Maybe a bit sick. Actually very sick. "Oh fuck." You cover your mouth both to muffle the word you just said and to avoid the contents of your stomach spewing from your mouth. You rush out of the kitchen but don't make it further than the hall. You just wretch there for a while and have half a mind to kill the cook. Of course, this didn't end without you attracting a decent amount of attention to yourself.

"Imperiousness?" one of the meek maids addressed you as you wiped disgusting vomit from your lips. You just groaned in response. "Are you feeling unwell? Shall we escort you to your chambers?"

You shake your head, and try standing up straight. You feel like you've been poisoned, not that it hasn't happened before but this feels slightly different. Another of the maids catches you and helps you stand.

"We'll take you to your chambers," the one that catches you says more firmly and you nod. You turn to the meek maid.

"You," she starts trembling. "Go to the kitchen and make sure not to burn the girl's cake, she was looking forward to it."

The girl nods and scampers to the kitchen. You're sure someone will take care of the mess so you don't bother saying anything about it.

* * *

You lie curled up in your bed for several days, quite peacefully since orders have been given to not disturb you. It's nice. But you miss scaring your servants. And being insulted by Mituna. And teaching Jane how to bake. Even Kurloz's nagging would be welcomed.

"Meenah." You take that back. You'd give anything to not have Kurloz around. You put the covers over your head and hear the door slam shut. "Meenah, stop it, I'm just hear to ask how you're feeling."

You peek your head from the covers and look up at him. He's not wearing any paint and you just sort of scrunch up your face a bit confused.

"Kurloz? You look fucking old!" you comment and he plants his face on his hand.

"I see you're making jokes," he says while gritting his teeth.

"Yeah. You just look different. I hadn't seen you without that makeup in ages. Your face is kinda nice. Less spooky looking."

"Are you done?" he asks not amused in the least. You nod and sit up. "So how are you feeling?"

"Pretty okay," you answer to which he smiles pleasantly. Oh you are in so much trouble.

"Good to hear," he says in that sickly sweet tone he has before he's about to tell you exactly what you did wrong, "Because I'd like to know what kind of fucking affairs did you have with the maintenance hands."

"Wasn't just his hands," you scoff and that only gets you a tug of your hair "Ow! Yeah I had 'affairs' with him! Why the fuck do you care?! I thought you were over- OW! Okay! Sorry, that one was a bit far."

He just gives you a cold stare. You glare back at him until what he said finally sinks in.

"Oh hell no," you gasp. He nods and let's go of your hair.

"Just. What. Were you thinking?" Kurloz questions as you begin freaking out. "Of all people. Of all motherfucking people, why him?"

"Kurloz, I'm sorry I fucked your boyfriend, get off your high horse! I'm the one with a problem right now!" you complain.

"He's- Never mind what he is, but this isn't as terrible as you make it sound. This could-"

"Not as terrible?" you screech only to get Kurloz rolling his eyes impatiently. "No you're right! I'm not making it sound as bad as it is because there aren't enough words to tell you how bad this is! I just! Ugh!"

You muffle yourself with a pillow and lie down again with the pillow still covering your face.

"Done?" he asks calmly and you answer with a muffled yes. "As I was saying. If you remember our talk from a few months back you do lack a child of your own. And besides, I'm dying to see how you do with raising a child."

You remove the pillow and groan as you sit up.

"Kurloz, I already have kids, and one of them went missing a week after coming into my custody," you dead pan and he chuckles.

"Well that happens. He'll turn up."

"He's been missing for a month," you add and he just starts laughing, "Fuck you man. I can't take care of kids. Much less a baby. How the fuck will I manage that?!"

"Nursemaid?" Kurloz suggests.

"Nursemaids blow," you counter, "You had one and look at how you turned out."

"Amusing," he replies. "You're going to have to deal with it. You're not getting any younger you know?"

"I will have you decapitated," you huff only for him to give you a comforting pat on the back as you break into tears. You never cry. "What the fuck?!"

"You're going to go through this a lot considering how unstable you are already, You might end up killing someone on mere whim and then crying over it." You bury your head on his shoulder and he holds you for a good amount of time and you're pretty sure he's pretty tired of all the things you screw up.

No fuck that sentiment! You're going to kill someone you swear!

* * *

A/N: I'm...sorry? The Empress was fun to write for, I tried to take Meenah's personality to write for her. Ha...I probably failed at that, but I also wanted the Empress to be sort of different from meenah too? Like a mix of the dancestors and what I think the Ancestors were like.

So I'm really sorry if my polite Kurloz seems out of turn. Kurloz just spooks me.

Anyway, here we have some background information I guess. Not much to be honest.  
This feels like a filler chapter. Oops.  
I had too much fun with this..to be perfectly honest. Next chapter will be back to the present and be about Karkat again. Though I might introduce a new character. Maybe.

Alright, thanks guys!


	6. Chapter 6: A Trio of Weirdos

You argue with Terezi for an awfully long time as you march next to a dirt road. You don't hope to accomplish much by arguing, but you are both so pissed off after such a long walk that you think you both need this ridiculously childish argument. Seriously, it's nothing that's even relevant.

"I'm just saying, a pirate would stand no chance against an assasin," Terezi insists giving dramatic gestures with the arm that's not looped around your own to lead her. You just roll your eyes, regardless of her not being able to see it. That's right, You're arguing about sea faring pirates and assassins and who would win in a fight. Not a fair one, just one in which both could use their own skills to the fullest. Whatever those skills are, Because you're both just stupid kids trying to pretend you know what you're actually talking about. Which you don't, obviously. "You did_ not_ just roll your eyes at me!"

"I didn't!" you huff, "How the fuck would you know that anyway? Doesn't matter. But a pirate would probably have weapons and deal more damage than an assassin could."

"That's where you're wrong Karkles," she chimes, off-tune in your opinion, " An Assassin would have the upper hand thanks to the element of surprise. I don't like to rely on surprise rather than a straightforward conflict, but it can be useful. An assassin could use a cleverly concealed dagger or anything. Even poison! The pirate would never see it coming."

"Why the fuck does everything come down to murder with you?!" you snap and she gives you a shark toothed smile.

"I feel that's the greatest punishment," she answers seriously as she begins slowing down her pace, forcing you to slow down as well. "You can serve a sentence in prison, sure, some awful experiences could await you but you still have tomorrow to make things better. An arm cut off? Well, you still have the other and you can still make the best of things. But death?"

She stops and pauses her speech to look directly at your bewildered dark brown eyes with her dim dark eyes behind red shades. Her features are cold, more serious than you thought someone who cackles and laughs all the time could manage. She could probably give Aradia a run for her money.

"Death," she murmurs, "Is the end. That's it. You don't get another day to make things better. You fucked up so bad, the world doesn't have space for you anymore. Nobody wants you then. You're dead, you're completely useless, you're done, you can't make anything better. In some cases though..."

"What?" you ask as she shakes her head and keeps walking, dragging you along. "Terezi, what the fuck about some cases?"

"Don't be so loud!" she grumbles, " In some cases, death is a mercy compared to the torturous punishment that could be imposed that leads to death. Poisoning a pirate is merciful in my opinion, compared to the embarrassment of being caught and killed in front of the people they used to victimize; if I were a pirate, I'd rather puke up blood for hours on my own than be public amusement."

"When you put it like that," you muse. "I guess that does make sense. You have a twisted mind, you know that?"

"Why of course," she says, "You consider me twisted for seeing things differently. Just see it my way ."

"If I did, we'd be pretty fucking screwed," you sigh and she slaps you. "Had that one coming."

"Damn right you did!" she snaps. "Getting real sick of your bullshit Karkles."

"I'm getting real tired of that nickname," you say mocking her tone. "It sounds like you're about to say "Sparkles" but somehow manage to butcher the word by adding the firs part of my name! Somewhere, someone is writhing and choking at the atrocity of this nickname and wishing they had never provided you with any other word rather than shiny glittery stuff."

She stays quiet after your rant but keeps looking forward. And like you expected her to take something you meant seriously, she starts laughing loudly.

"You're really something Karkat," she cackles, "I didn't think you'd have it in you to be funny."

"I'm real fucking hilarious," you say sarcastically as she begins trying to catch her breath. Her laugh can be a bit much in your opinion and not in the least bit contagious. Still, you find it more normal than her serious side. You don't think it's bad, just that she takes things too at heart. You don't want to get on her bad side,like her real bad side. It didn't take you that long to figure that much out.

She sighs ad gives a last giggle.

"Well that was something," she comments and you grunt in reply. "What's your problem?"

"I have 99 problems and you are 2 of them," you huff. She just smiles.

"Aw, poor Karkat is just grumpy," she says in a mocking tone as though she were babying you which sets your blood to boil. She smiles. "Your face must be so cute with the bright shade it turned."

"How do you know my face is red?!" you snap, your ears feeling rather hot, either from anger or embarrassment.

"I do now!" she states with an air of victory, " Seriously though, you're tired and I'm fucking exhausted."

"I'm not tired," you argue and she glares at you. "I feel so well rested, I could keep going for the rest of the day and still be fine."

"Oh?" she grumbles and slumps against your shoulder, with all of her weight causing you to stumble.

"Terezi what the fuck?!"

"Carry me, my handsome chivalrous knight!" she gasps dramatically as you use both your hands to try to push her back up. This of course only causes you to be sustaining your companion with both arms as she she slumps like she were dead.

"Fuck you!" you yell. "I can't walk like this!"

"I can't take a single step," Terezi moans overdramatically doing the classic, over the top damsel-in-distress motions. "A gentleman would never leave a lady behind, would he Karkles?"

"You aren't a lady," you mutter dropping her on the ground only for her to complain about your weak, bony arms, "But as the leader of our trip, I won't leave you behind, dead or alive. I'll carry you on my back."

"You're kidding," Terezi scoffs standing up and nearly breaking your nose in the process. She begins dusting herself off while complaining. "Karkat, your arms are fucking weak. There's no way you could carry even your own weight.

"Fuck you, I'm stronger than I look," you counter and she shakes her head. "I'll prove it!"

"But Karkat, that's a really bad-"

"I'm going to carry you."

"Karkat-"

"I'm going to carry you."

"But-"

"What part of I'm going to fucking carry you, don't you get?!"

You're unbeleiveable! Fine!" she snaps. "I'm assuming we're doing this piggy back riding. It's not my fault when you stumble."

"I'm not going to stumble," you say placing her hands on your shoulders as you turn your back to her allowing for her to hop onto your back. As expected, your legs wobble at the added weight and you let out a relatively heavy grunt. She grumbles more about your being a stubborn weakling.

"Shut it," you scowl with strain in your voice as you take a few steps. She huffs and keeps her arms clasped around your neck with you holding the back of her knees.

"You're a real piece of work, you know that?" she sighs as you keep walking down next to the path. "I'm surprised you could lug me, and our supplies for more than 5 steps. But it's just a matter of time. 3...2..."

You miss your footing and collapse on the ground, Terezi moving her hands so as not to get caught under you, and thankfully, not hit your windpipe. Still all weight comes crashing on you, knocking the breath out of you.

"One," Terezi says starting to sit herself up on your back and you grunt at the pain that causes you. She sighs dramatically and begins talking again. "To be fair, I knew this was going to happen. Maybe if you could listen a little..." She keeps ranting like that while you wheeze to catch your breath once again so that you can yell at her to get off of you. You sigh loudly and she stops to look down at you.

"You alright Karkles? You look a bit winded," she comments bluntly.

"No shit," you pant, "I didn't notice."

"Really, you look awful," she says. You close your eyes and hit your head against the ground.

"Terezi get the fuck off!" you say as loudly as you can possibly muster. "You're heavier than you look."

"Well! You're bonier than you look," Terezi counters, sliding of your back only to sit cross legged next to you. You're about to say something but prefer to keep lying down. The grass feels nice and refreshing compared to walking under the beating sun. You don't mind the heat so much, since you're determined to make steady progress, though you doubt you and Terezi have even gotten more than a mile away from the forest after hours of this trek. You have to agree, Terezi was right when she said you both needed a break. Lying here, on the hard cool ground only softened by grass is the most comfortable you've ever been. Completely relaxed, too tired to even complain. You're breathing is slow and relaxed. Maybe too slow. Terezi pokes your shoulder. "Karkat?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you dead?" You lift your hand and give her the ever so friendly sign involving your middle finger. "Just checking."

"I feel like a failure," you mutter.

"How come?" she asks tugging at the grass blades.

"I just do," you sigh grabbing a handful of grass but not pulling it. "I'm a fucking mess. I ran away from home without even a second thought because I was pissed off at someone, left the only people who might care if I fucking died, needed the help of a blind girl, no offense. And for what? To chase a hopeless childish dream. It's not even a dream. It's a fucking delusion."

"Are we seriously having this talk now?" Terezi groans. "Man, you only open up when you don't have the energy to be grumpy and edgy. I told you my story ages ago. Some of it anyway. But you hadn't told me much until now! What other issues do you have? So we can take care of them now."

You rip the grass out, along with clumps of dirt allowing for that rich earthy smell that you'd never paid attention to. You jolt upright, anger completely overtaking you, replacing the exhaustion in your limbs.

"You know what? No! Fuck you! I don't care how long you were up on that tree! Or your fucking pet dragon! You need to learn how to talk to people because what you're doing right now, that's not okay! There's a fine line between teasing and being a complete asshole! There's things you can tease about and there's things you sometimes should just nod or let it slide!"

Terezi stares back at you in shock, her red lenses off her face, revealing her dark eyes. The surprise changes to anger much like yourself.

"Oh so it's fine for you to curse and yell at me?!" Terezi yells back. "That's acceptable?! Oh I'm sorry! I forget that you come from-" She stops. Your frown deepens.

"I come from where?!" you growl, she looks, well, directs her eyes, down at her hands. "From the lower class trash," you finish spitefully.

"I..."

"That's what your class calls us and those above you," you say more calmly. "But, I wouldn't say you're wrong. We're mostly pretty shitty. I'm probably the worst you can get at. Poor, rude, stupid and a total fuckass. Yeah, I'm the big winner here, woopty-fucking-doo."

There's silence for a long time, allowing for you to cool off. You don't regret exploding like that, you think it needed to be said.

"Being in my position isn't too enviable either," Terezi mutters, pulling her knees up, "But, you're not a total fuckass. You're a pain in the ass sometimes, but we all are. Can we just..stop talking about this?"

"Yeah," you agree, falling on your back. "This talk isn't something I'd like to talk with you. But we should work on our people skills."

"You think?" she scoffs. " I think we're pretty damn charming with our sailor mouths and smart alec antics." You ignore her little joke, which you're pretty sure gets under her skin, but you are still a bit angry.

'Well, it won't get us anywhere," you say a bit more seriously. Specially if we want any hope to reach the capitol or the next town before scavengers come for us."

"How come I'm the morbid one?" Terezi sneers.

"Shut up," you say rolling your eyes. You sit up to try to find away around your current problem. There's nothing to occupy your attention other than Terezi going through the bag of supplies and groping anything she touches. You make sure to keep an eye on her so she doesn't end up licking everything which she told you is what she does sometimes. She takes an apple and hands one to you. It's way past noon and it has been a while since any of you have eaten so you begrudgingly thank her as you eat the apple.

You both just sit there in silence for a really long time. There's nothing any of you want to talk about. There's nothing to talk about really. You're in a mostly empty area next to a hardly traveled road. The birds around, if any, are quiet too only with some distant chirping on occasions. Silence sucks.

"Hey Karkat," Terezi speaks up, "You hear that?"

"Hear what?" you ask a bit annoyed. You can't really hear anything but you figure maybe she's better at hearing things than you.

"It sounds like clopping," Terezi says a bit confused.

"Clopping?" you question equally if not more confused than her.

"Yeah, the thing horses do," Terezi piped a bit more excitedly. " Hey I can hear a cart too!"

"The heat's getting to you Terezi," you grumble, looking at her like she's crazy. She's probably clinically insane as far as you can tell, since that hasn't stopped being a thing you believe in. She sniffs contemptuously at you.

"If you won't listen, look," she scowls. You decide to humor and look down the road only to find that she's one hundred percent right.

"You're a fucking witch!" you state while staring at her completely open mouthed. She smiles smugly.

"A witch? Pfft, please," she scoffs and starts standing up. You stand up along with her.

"Please tell me I haven't figured out what you're thinking?" you sigh.

"If it's hitching a ride from a random guy, then yeah, that's exactly what you're thinking!" she chirps and elbows you. "You're getting good at this!"

"Augh!" you growl as Terezi begins calling out to the cart driver. You're hoping he won't stop, because frankly, you don't think it will go too well if he does. Sadly, luck has never been your thing and the universe hates you almost as much as you hate yourself.

The cart driver stops just in front of you. He looks down at you, and you gulp noticing his relatively serious face and intimidating height as well as build. If he doesn't kill you, you're going to kill Terezi for this goddamn awful idea.

"Do you need something?" the man asked in a gruff voice, not unkind but definitely not something you'd call friendly.

"No," you answer quickly. He raises an eyebrow at you while you try to look past him. You find that there's someone else with him, who's staring at you equally strangely. If anything, disgusted maybe.

"Karkat shut up," Terezi says pushing your shoulder and attempts to look at the man in the eye. She almost succeeds and puts on the most amiable face she can muster without giving a shark toothed grin. The man is taken aback but looks less annoyed with you both. " Ignore my rude chum here. He's rather grouchy when he's tired. He's a lot nicer."

"Really?" the man asks with an edge of sarcasm.

"Eh...Not really," she shrugs. "But there's something I'd like to ask. Are you headed to the village that's down this road?"

"Yes," he answers plainly.

"Great! Would it bother you if we asked for a ride to that village?"

"I don't see why not," he shrugs. You and the man's companion quickly react to that.

"What?!" you both exclaim.

"Terezi, you're off your rocker," you say between gritted teeth.

"Shut up Karkat. This man is being very nice. Thank you."

"Not at all," he says politely. " I must say though, it appears a lot of you young ones enjoy traveling these days."

"Needed a change of scenery," Terezi shrugs and you grab the arm she's offering you so you can guide her up on the cart. "Why? Has someone else asked you for a ride?"

"As a matter of fact yes. Some strange, lanky boy about Equius' age here. He should be back there unless he hopped off at some point," the man says calmly. He then turns to you. " You look familiar. Have I seen you before somewhere?"

"I don't think so. I' sure as hell have never seen you," You answer, and the man shrugs. You think this guy's weird and are having serious second thoughts and would drag Terezi away if she hadn't already felt the ledge of the wagon and pulled herself up along with the bag. You pull yourself too and sit around the small crates of multiple different items. Then you hear snoring.

"Or he fell asleep," you grumble as the wagon begins pulling along. The boy does in fact look strange with his head of wild brown hair and polka dotted pants. He's skinny and makes you look chubby in comparison. He's leaning against a box of tomatoes while hugging onto a small satchel tightly. "Some sight."

"I should say the same about you," the younger male, Equius retorts. You frown.

"Excuse you?" you growl. "Look, I just gave this girl an earful and I wouldn't mind giving you one either!"

"I doubt you're vocabulary would be extensive enough to give me an earful," he scoffs.

"You did not just go there you asshole!" you insult only to notice him frown at your use of words. "I could fill a book with the words I know and still need room which I doubt some ignorant delivery boy like yourself could do!"

"For your information!" his voice starts rising up in anger but he seems to catch himself and look composed. "I will not waste my time arguing with someone as vulgar as yourself."

"Vulgar?!" you screech. "You're such-"

"Karkat," Terezi hisses. "I think you can go without picking a fight."

"Don't tell me what to do!" She then proceeds to tell you to sit down and stop flipping your shit because it's embarrassing.

"Equius, being more polite wouldn't kill you," the man chides.

"But Horuss," he begins to argue.

"But nothing. Extending some kindness will benefit you in the long run."

"On his defense Karkat is a bit of a dick," Terezi adds in just for you to give her a punch, just hard enough for her to look at you annoyed. "Sometimes."

"You're definitely an amusing pair," Horuss chuckles. At this point all conversations die down. Terezi decides to rummage through the bag of supplies to take some kind of inventory. Equius is grumbling something about him actually having friends which you doubt he does. Horuss is just preoccupying himself with getting to the village. That one guy is still sound asleep, which remind you of the huge bags under your eyes. They've diminished a lot since your nightmares are more infrequent but you swear there's something oddly weird about the few dreams you are getting. This guy looks somewhat familiar, but where have you seen anyone as scraggly as this guy? Nowhere, that's where you idiot. The cart hits a bump and you manage to hit your head against the crate you were leaning against.

"Ow, shit!" you curse and hold the back of your head, only to hear the same echoed by someone else. He's holding his head too, and looks at you simultaneously as you gawk at him. He grins.

"Oh hey, bro!" he greets cheerfully. " I didn't know I all up and had company. Should have woken me up or some shit." He has a very relaxed way of speaking which is a tone you're not particularly used to, but doesn't annoy you as much compared to Terezi's more shrill voice.

"You looked like the dreamer type," Terezi scoffs shuffling everything in the bag. "I didn't think we'd get a coherent word out of you." You clear your throat.

"Who's trying to pick a fight now?" you sneer and she rolls her eyes.

"Fuck off," she sighs, " Have you seen my glasses? I can't find them."

"Front pocket," you tell her and turn back on the guy who's just been laughing about Terezi's insult. "What?"

"I dunno, I just hadn't heard anyone say something like that to me in a pretty motherfucking long time," the boy explains. "Sis right here has some whatcha ma call it...Spunk."

"Why thank you," Terezi jibes placing the red shades on her face. "At least _someone_ recognizes it. What's your name kid?" Your about to tell her he is probably a good amount of years older than you, at least he looks it but decide against it.

"I'm Gamzee," he introduces. " what about you bros? Any names I can go by or will I just call you bro and sis for the rest of the motherfucking ride?"

"I'm Teerezi and this is Karkat. I like to have fun but Karkat has a campaign going against fun," Terezi says gleefully.

"I'm not against fun!" you argue, "I just don't find your jokes or games any fun."

"You bros are all tense," Gamzee observes scratching the shaggy mess on his head. "I thought you would all up and be buddies and shit."

You and Terezi sort of look at each other. Really, it's just you looking at her and her trying to direct her eyes at you, which she is surprisingly good at.

"Eh..." you say mutually. "I guess we're friends."

Gamzee grins.

"I see."

"I don't," Terezi says sarcastically. "What do you see?"

"Maybe I'm wrong but it doesn't take a genius," Gamzee says cryptically leaning back still hugging the bag he's been clutching this entire time. You and Terezi just frown confused until what he's saying finally hits you.

"Oh," you realize, "Oh fuck no! There's nothing attractive about Terezi! I mean she has shiny hair and relatively pretty eyes, but there is no way. Nope." Gamze just laughs lightly and shrugs.

"Well thanks for the compliment Karkles," Terezi chuckles, "Sorry I can't return any. You're sweet though."

You blush a bright red and pull up your knees to try to hide your face. Gamzee and Terezi just burst out laughing.

"Stop," you mutter completely embarrassed. You can't take compliments if it wasn't obvious enough.

"Oh I'm just teasing Karkles," Terezi giggles. "You're a great guy when we're not under each other's skin."

"Sorry Karbro," Gamzee says mid chuckle putting a hand on your shoulder. "Just making stupid guesses. I'm not used to talking to anyone my age. Or close enough to it anyway."

"Welcome to the club," Terezi jokes. " How old are you anyway."

Gamzee let's go of his bag to start counting on his hand. "Sixteen, I think. Just like the Equibro up front, but he actually knows his age. You talk to him yet?"

"We've spoken," you spit. " He's a pain in the ass."

"Language," Equius says as if prompted. "I don't find you too appealing either. You should act accordingly."

"According to what bro?" Gamzee asks leaning over to speak to Equius.

"Social rule," Equius states frowning, " A simpleton like you should be able to understand that much at least."

"I dunno man, you can't just define everyone for how they look," Gamzee says a bit absently. You observe a bit intrigued by the lanky boy's relaxed approach. "Just think of it this way. What would you say if an itsy little caterpillar bro looked all brown and ugly and shit? Would you find it ugly and worthless?"

"Well yes but it's just an-" Gamzee interrupts him.

"But this little motherfucker is all up and growing. You might think it's just a worm or whatever but it's really a caterpillar. And due to the miracle that is our fucking life, it becomes a pretty fly motherfucker with wings. Is it still ugly?"

"I suppose not, but the fact remains that-" You stare as confused as Equius at Gamzee. You're not sure you understood what he meant about a butterfly.

"Case closed, bro. As far as you know Karbro here might be a butterfly waiting to bloom. Like he'll just sprout wings and shit."

You and Equius both make a face at Gamzee while Terezi is snorting with laughter.

"No wait..blooming is what flowers do. But butterflies help flowers spread they're little miracles. Birds too right? Wait...What were we talking about?" Gamzee rambles getting confused himself. You look at Equius who returns the same disapproving look.

"Can we agree Gamzee's high as fuck and start over?" you suggest.

"That can be agreed," Equius agrees to your proposal. You offer him your hand and h gives you a rather strong handshake. You swallow a small yelp and rub your hand as soon as the handshake is over.

"It makes me so happy to see my good bros getting along," Gamzee smiles nodding his head.

"They made up over agreeing you make no sense," Terezi scoffs.

"That's cool," he shrugs. "So where are you motherfuckers headed anyway?"

"Capitol." Terezi answers casually. "Ever been there?"

"Huh...not that...I can say, " Gamzee chuckles. " I've been to a lot of places. Capitol's still a long way. How you motherfuckers planning to get there?"

"Mostly by foot," you add in.

"That's preposterous and foolish. You'd never make it," Equius states.

"Thanks for the optimism ," you huff.

"He has a point though," Gamzee agrees.

"I thought you'd never been there," Terezi brings up narrowing her eyes at him.

"I haven't," he stammers, " I mean I might've but I don't remember setting a motherfucking foot there. Every motherfucker knows how to get to the capitol. Well most."

"Your story checks out, for now," Terezi says in a threatening tone only to get a goofy smile from Gamzee.

"We need directions anyway," you grumble, "Hate to admit that, but I have no idea where I'm going from here and I doubt Terezi does either.

"There's signs," Horuss interjects. " You could try those."

You and Terezi share an uncomfortable silence. Gamzee stops smiling and looks at you both with confusion in his blue eyes. Equius quickly understands your silence.

"It's not that easy," you sigh.

"They're just signs bro, no big deal," Gamzee encourages and you give him a very annoyed look as he rambles.

"Gamzee," Equius interrupts him getting the boy to stop, " You can't read, can you Karkat?"

"I can," you defend yourself. " But it's really hard sometimes. I've read signs before. but recognizing all the letters and numbers is hard when you don't do it so often. The poor have no real reason to read, remember? I learned because of some books in my house but it wasn't much and I usually gave up because no one else knew how to read the fucking words. So..I guess, no, I can't really read."

You and Terezi had discussed this before, when she tried to get you to read her something. She knows how to read but can't do it for obvious reasons. You embarrassed yourself awfully.

_"What's wrong?" she asked as she held the book in her hands._

_"I..."you cut yourself off, unsure how to tell her you're basically shit at reading if you can read at all. You take the book from her and inspect some of the words. They all look unfamiliar to you. You closed the book and heave the biggest sigh ever. " Terezi, I can't read this. It's too hard."_

_"That's fine," she shrugged, "I can't either, not anymore but maybe I could teach you. If you want. Though I'm not very patient."_

_"No," you grumbled. "I barely even know the letters to start with and to end it sometimes they get all mixed up. I wish I could but I can't."_

_"We'll have to find you a teacher then," Terezi smiled. "Remember the guy I told you about? He couldn't read a word either until my sister introduced him to a teacher. Now he reads pretty good. You can do it if you try Karkles."_

_"Maybe. but for now, I can't really read anything," you complained. Terezi put her arm around your shoulder and pulled you close with a smile._

_"That makes two of us then," she chuckled._

You appreciated what she was trying to do but you feel useless.

"Settled then," Gamzee sighs.

"What is?" Terezi asks.

"Soon as we get off, I'll be your guide until you reach the capitol safely. If you'd like me to of course," he proposes. You take a moment to think about as opposed to Terezi.

"Fuck no!" she scowls. "Listen here, I don't know you, I don't like you, and you are being a very suspicious character! I wouldn't trust you with a fistful of dirt."

"I wouldn't trust myself either," he chirps, "But trust is something you build up."

"He has a point," you agree and she gapes at you.

"Karkat!" she screeches.

"How much did I know about you?" you question.

"Nothing," she answers begrudgingly.

"Did I like you at all?"

"No, and you still don't," she huffs.

"And you were definitely being suspicious," you finish and she's about to argue but thinks better of it. " So, excuse my wording dear Terezi, but I took a blind stab at trusting you and so far that's worked out great, hasn't it. Well, you haven't tried to murder me, which I consider great. I'm willing to do that again, and I think you should give somebody a fucking chance before declaring you find them guilty of something."

She glares at you and she finally extends her hand to Gamzee.

"Fine. I'll give it a shot," she growls.

"Good to hear it sis," he smiles shaking her hand. Just as he is going to let go of her hand she tightens her grip on his.

"But know this," she threatens, " One step out of line and you'll be answering to me." Gamzee looks completely relaxed regardless of the fercoity displayed on the girl's face.

"No problem," Gamzee agrees. You sigh, frustrated with Terezi's skepticism and lack of trust. Not that you trust Gamzee but at least you're not threatening him. You try to see if the village is in sight so you can get off this wagon. You know Equius and Horuss have been exchanging looks the whole time and just know they think your trio is shithive maggots. You probably are. But you'll deal with that later. For now, the village lies in close proximity.

* * *

A/N: did I say the last chapter was the longest? So sorry about that. I just wanted to write this one in more length. I don't promise longer chapters, just the size I feel necessary.  
Ah, also Sorry for anyone being out of character. I never promised you they wouldn't be but I never said they would be. I feel like I'm butchering the characters though, so my apologies. But it's also necessary to make them do certain things for the story to advance. I'll work on it though. Promise.

So here we have Gamzee, the most important character in the story. Okay. Not the most important but he's pretty important. Everyone is. sort of. Well, most of them are important. There's a good reason this story's called _Strings of Fate_.

Alright! Well thanks for your patience and I hope you're all looking forward to me ditching Karkat and Terezi for a while to let you know about more characters and see what our sea princess is up to. Maybe.


	7. Chapter 7: Plans and Spiders

You are still hiding with the cargo, the looming threat of being discovered ever present in your mind. It's not so bad now though, at least you don't think it is as you sit munching on a piece of dried fruit. By now, you are quite tired of eating fruit and would much rather have something like fish but you can't be picky, and it's not like you don't eat other things, rare as it is.

You will definitely admit that Eridan has been taking care of you the best he can and kept you quite safe. All you can do for him is talk with him about how he feels. He's a very sad and apathetic young man, but you're glad he limits what he tells you, even if it's always about him. Sometimes you talk about yourself, but you aren't entirely honest as there are some parts you would tell no one, and there are things you don't want anyone to know about you. Nobody should know them.

Descending footsteps sound from the creaking wooden stairs and you bolt behind the crates like you've done so many times before. It's still odd to you how no one has found you yet. Eridan said they probably dismissed your scurrying as rats which are nearly impossible to get rid off on the ship and you felt slightly offended by that. You're not a rat, you argued, you're a cuttlefish because they're awesome. You concentrate on you feeling offended with that conversation to try to ignore what happened in the rest of the conversation which was just too funny for you.

You stay behind the crates waiting to find out who it is.

"Fef, get out of there," Eridan sighs. You poke your head over the crates to find the young man looking at you not amused in the least.

"What?" you whine, " You cod have been an otter member of the crew."

"I think you overdid the puns on that one," he says shaking his head as you hop over the crates and sit on the wood. You pat the spot besides you with a little smile. He rolls his eyes and sits next to you.

"Some guppy is really moody today," you pout. You've found out that you making funny faces usually makes him smile unless he's really irritated in which case you only annoy him more. He just smirks at you but quickly changes to a worried expression that quickly gets you to worry. You reach for his hand. "What's wrong?"

"Well, it's," he fumbles with his words. "I'm just a bit worried about you."

"Why?" you ask feigning a little smile.

"I think my dad knows you're here. Not you specifically but someone," he explains.

"Whale, everybody else thinks it's just rats, remember?" you giggle elbowing him and he just shrugs.

"Not him. There ain't fooling the old man when he's been sailing for so long," he sighs, "He knows ways to find stowaways and fish them out with ease."

"Oh," is all you say letting your shoulders drop as you hold Eridan's hand more tightly. "I'm not going to give you trouble, am I? I know I'm going to be in trouble but what aboat you?"

"Me?" he asks and ponders your question for a while. "No, he wouldn't do anyfin bad to me. Just probably yell at me and tell me to think about what I did. Then not talk about it."

"Sea?" you smile broadly, "You're dad is pretty great! I wish my mother was half as lenient."

"You're mom's tough on you?" Eridan asks.

"Very. She's just really mean," you stick out your tongue. "She used to lock me up for days if I did something she didn't like."

"Seriously? That's really awful," he sympathizes with you and you smile at him. Then his entire faces lights up.

"Wait, I just got an idea!" he exclaims. "More of a plan, and I'm not sure it'll even work."

"Are the chance of your plan working remotely good?" you ask doubtfully.

"They're pretty good," he replies. "I think we could appeal to his soft side. How convincing can you make a hopeless face?"

"Like this?" you suggest as you let your lip quiver slightly and let your eyes fill up with tears as you look at the ground.

"Yeah, I think you got it," he smiles and you brighten up proud of yourself.

"But how is that going to help?"

"Well he at least won't throw ya overboard which I think is a pretty good victory."

"Eridan!" He only chuckles.

"Sorry, sorry," he smiles, "I think he won't throw you overboard anyway. He would if you were older. How old are you anyway?"

" I'm ten," you answer.

"You don't look it," Eridan shrugs.

"What do you mean I don't look it, mister I-look-twenty?!" you scowl.

"Twenty?!" Eridan gasps. "I don't look that old! I'm only a few years older than ya! I can say that now anyway, you looked five. "

"I'm not five!"

"Well who told you to be so short?!"

"I'm not short! I'm vertically challenged!"

"Oh my cod!" at that point Eridan just sort of bursts laughing and you just smile. You wait for him to stop laughing at your rather silly commentary.

"About the plan though," Eridan clears his throat. "What do you think?"

"What choice do I have?" you shrug. "And besides, if he throws me overboard I'm a pretty good swimmer. When do we go with your plan?"

"I'd say now's a time as good as any," someone replies. You both look up to find a slim girl with very light hair that makes you wonder if it's blonde, a ridiculously light ginger or the same color as a peach. "So this is your litte friend Eridumb?" She looks at you with a very mischievous eye. Cold and ice blue that makes you nervous but intrigued.

"Can't say I'm impresed!" she scoffs flipping her hair.

"Vris how the fuck did you even...You weren't. How?!" Eridan stammers jumping definsively in front of you. The girl rolls her eye. You now notice she's wearing an eyepatch on the left one.

"Articulating is important idiot," she jeers with a coniving grin. She begins strolling around the cargo deck and you try to get a look from behind Eridan though he's keeping a hand on your shoulders.

"What the ever lovin fuck are you doin here?" he growls. She turns dramatically with that same smile.

"I thought you'd never ask," she sneers and you notice the elongation of her emphasized words. Do all pirates talk weird? And are they all so damn dramatic? "Remember all the investigation I did on my idol?"

"I thought you said she was a fraud," Eridan scoffs.

"Please, of course she is. Sort of," she crosses her arms and looks rather displeased. "She actualy might be less cool than I thought. But you would never guess what I have over her head. Not tat I'm telling you."

"Wasn't askin," Eridan says exhasperated. "How did you get her is what I am askin."

"Blackmail," the girl says as though that were the most obvious thing in the world. "Marquise and your old man are catching up for old time's sake. I think it's going to end with Marquise yelling a retreat and Dualscar being the worst pirate of his caliber."

"Quit runnin your mouth," he scowls.

"Fine," she sighs and begins approaching you both, specifically your friend. "You should be happy to see me. We're good friends, aren't we Eri?"

"Oh sure, if you consider a backstabbing bitch a friend. I've missed your bitch attitude like a stubbed toe," he growls.

"Aw, you haven't changed!" she smiles then looks at you with what you assume is her good eye. You look back up to her in what you hope doesn't look too curious. "Who's your little friend?"

"I'm Feferi," you answer before Eridan can say anything. "Who are you?"

"You mean you haven't heard of me?" she gasps. "Oh, no, no,no, no, that won't do. No, no, no,no. Eridan have you absolutely neglected talking about me? Such a shame, I always mention you to my new aquaintances. I, am Vriska, also known as the best damn pirate and strategist that ever existed."

She smiles deviously and offers you her hand which you just stare at. She looks rather miffed by you not taking her hand. Eridan looks rather pleased by that which makes you wonder what happened between these two. Vriska takes her hand back and flips her hair and walks to some box, making herself quite at home.

"How'd you end up with this loser anyway?" Vriska asks as she crosses her legs and leans forward while biting one of her nails.

"That doesn't concern you," you answer in a bubbly tone. She stops, her lips still on her fingernail, to stare at you with that piercing ice blue eye, shocked. Tat only lasts a second before her face goes back to match her dramatic and smug tone.

"Don't play dumb," she coaxes, "Fefy, I heard your entire conversation. I _was_ going to rat you out, but I see you have guts. You dod have guts, right kid?"

"I ran away from my home, with fear that my mother would chase after me and quite literally, kill me since there were several guardsmen on my trail," you answer bluntly. Eridan and Vriska gape at you open mouthed. You smile at them. "Am I gutsy enough?"

"Nice," Vriska chuckles and claps for you. "Cutey has some spunk. Guess I'm helping you out then."

"No hold on a minute!" Eridan interrupts. "Nobody's askin for your help!All you ever do is fuck things up!"

"I do not," she scoffs.

"Yes, you, do," he insists and points to her eyepatch. "Just like you fucked up your eye."

"My eye's fine," Vriska sneers, "I just see a bit cloudy with it, but it's getting better. Thanks for your concern."

"Fuck you!"

"You wish," Vriska scoffs as Eridan's face goes completely red. You can't help but giggle.

"Fef, no, don't laugh at that," he chides as you keep laughing.

"Really great kid right here," Vriska states pointing at you with her thumb. "How would you like joining theMarquise?"

"No, I think I'm good," you answer. "Whale...could I take you up on that offer if everything else goes wrong?"

"Fef!" Eridan whines.

"Eridan!" you reply mocking his tone. "We don't even know if it'll work! Maybe Vriska could help."

"See? Feferi here trusts me, why can't you?" Vriska interrogates.

"Because I know your true colors Vriska," he argues. "You're nothing but a liar and a cheat."

"Woah, no," she says defensively, " I have all of the luck and I don't lie, I just don't tell you the whole truth.

Eridan grits his teeth and you're sure he wants to yell things at her that you honestly think will take all day.

"So, should we tell him?" you ask Eridan.

"I guess...I just wonder what he'll do when he knows-"

"When he knows you snuck a stowaway?" a voice you hadn't heard in an awfully long time, and hoped to never hear, interrogates. Eridan cringes,Vriska stops biting her nail entirely and you just freeze. " Probably feed you to the sharks or sell you to Marquise unless you have a good explanation."

"I think I'll pass on the offer," the golden haired woman besides him sneers. You now find the voice belongs to a rather tall man with broad shoulders though not particularly muscular, his hair's a really odd shade of brown which you're pretty sure looks a bit blonde but ginger at the same time. Also, there's some rather outstanding double scars on his face which would definitely call for a name like Dualscar.

"Oops, did I forget to mention they were coming here soon? My bad," Vriska shrugs and hops off the box.

"Well?" te captain demas, "I'm waiting on a good reason."

"I," Eridan begins nervously. He's looking at the floor and his father has a rather burning look. The woman herself looks as though she's sorry for him, but has no intention of getting involved.

"It's my fault," you cut in to gain all eyes on you. "I...snuck on the ship. Eridan didn't know I was here until a few days ago. I'm really sorry but I just wanted to get away from where I lived and this was the only way I saw about it. I'm, really, reely sorry and I know it was wrong but don't punish Eridan for helping me out. This is all my fault. I have to take the blame."

"Fef, you don't," Eridan whispers to you and you give him a meaningful look and a shrug of your shoulders. It's time you pulled your own weight the way that doesn't involve others.

"Just how old are you to pull such a dangerous stunt?" the man asks.

"I'm ten," you asnwer. " I know I don't look it, but that's the truth."

"Well," he huffs, "There's no way I'm feeding you to the sharks and I doubt Marquise would take you."

"No I would," she grins only to get a glare from Dualscar, "Cronus, you have no idea how to treat a girl, you'd scare the little thing to death."

"She has a stronger spine than Eridan," he counters. Eridan just hunches his shoulders. "The boy's pretty tough, and she, well, she's clearly got him beat. Might even be tougher than your brat."

"Hey!" Vriska screeches. "No one's tougher than me! Fuck you!"

"Vriska, darling, shut up," the woman orders, "So are you really willing to take care of a girl? I mean, at least until you leave her to her luck in some forsaken place? That's what you'll do. You would have done that to Eridan too had you not been convinced otherwise by...Well, you know who."

"Wait you were goin to do what?!" Eridan interrogates.

"That was years ago and you were a very annoying kid," he explains simply as though it were no big deal. "I wouldn't do that. I'm much more different than before, you don't have to remind me of things like that."

"No, I do," Marquise replies, " You love hearing yourself yap but what about when I have something to say? Soemthing that's actually important? If people listened to me, maybe the world would get along better."

"Screw you and your 'helpful' information. I've never seen you taking care of a kid so you don't have much to say bout that!"

"Um, can I say something?" you interrupt, they stop bickering to look at you and they both nod. "I do have a mind of my own. And if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to stay here?"

"See? She finds me better," Dualscar boasts.

"Shut up," the other captain growls then turns to you with a more pleasant tone, "Are you sure about that? I'm not kdding, he really tried to abadon his own son."

"I'm shore," you reply, " I'm used to people like him. Besides, they both need someone to take care of them."

"I heard that!" Eridan and his father say in unison.

"If you say so," she shrugs and appears ready to leave before turning ot the other captain. " So help me, Cronus, if I don't find this girl here the next time I see you. I'll fucking kill you and that's not an empty threat."

"You never could before, you still wouldn't be able to," he says smugly and earns rude gesture from the lady in blue before she finally leaves with Vriska. You look at the pair you'll be living with for the longest time. One you already know to be full of himself, but something tells, you the captain will be at least twice of impressed with himself.

"Welcome to the crew I guess?" Eridan shrugs, then turns to his father, "What do you mean, annoyin kid?!"

"You never quit your crying and whining. Come to think of it, you ahven't changed one bit," he chuckles.

"Chip off the old block then," the boy retorts. "Way to handle things."

You giggle at their little arguement before going up to them. You pull on the captain's arm to get his attention as he clearly towers you. He kneels down to be able to see you face to face, and you wrap your arms around his neck which takes him by surprise

"Thank you," you whisper gratefully. He pats your back lightly on you back as you start crying. You're so relieved. You thought you were done for, you didn't know what you were doing, you just felt so lucky at that moment. Sure, there's still the whole working on a ship, but you'll be fine. You'll make a plan this time around, a more elaborate plan that iwll have more oportunities than the previous improvised one. You're going to be ready for when things go bad again. Well, if things get worse which you know they just will.

* * *

A/N: Ah this took me longer than I wanted it too! So sorry.  
Also, I'm back at school, so I'm afraid I'll update this even less often than I already do. So sorry about that! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!  
Next chapter will add more characters. Also, we're nowhere near the end, so even if this may be moving fast, it's really because it'll be pretty long. I may end up writing one shots on the side in case you want a change of scenery, but for the most part, I want to stick with this.


	8. Chapter 8: The Three Musketeers(Sort Of)

Your name is Aradia Megido and you are trekking valiantly in search of the boy you insulted awfully. You will face perilous paths and maybe even meet the shady character or two. You are prepared for all of this though, completely, and certainly prepared. Of course you have your loyal expedition crew with you, the best there could ever be.

You hear a crash behind you where your entourage is which demands that you turn quickly unless this is an emergen-  
Never mind. Sollux fell down and Tavros is trying to help him up. You wonder if finding Karkat is really worth your crew's efforts.

"At this rate, you might as well just stay on the ground," you sigh.

"Well even if I was standing I'd still be on the ground, thanks," the blond lisps, still lying on the ground.

"I'm sorry, I meant you should marry it since I see you both have a very intimate relationship," you correct.

"Oh yeah, didn't you hear? We've been going steady for a while, we're getting fucking married here. It'll be wonderful and you would do just fine as the bridesmaid. Tavros can be the best man if we don't find KK," Sollux sneers as you smirk. Tavros looks hopelessly confused at you both.

"Sollux, you are beyond weak, you have the lightest load, out of our little supplies and you can't even carry it without falling," You grumble as you lean down to take the small pack for him. You smile " Hopefully this helps." You slap the back of his head causing him to curse at you and pick up the bag. "Can we carry on now?"

"Why are we even looking for KK?" Sollux groans. You shift the pack on your shoulders. " He ran away on his own, he can come back on his own."

"Because he needs us," you reply hollowly. It sounds hollow to you anyway, as you believe you already told them your reasoning. Maybe you didn't, it's hard to say When you are spoken to from so many sides.

"Um, why?" Tavros questioned, keeping only a few paces behind you.

"I already told you," you answer. The boys exchange confused looks. You sigh, annoyed with yourself. " I'm doing it again, aren't I?"

" AA, don't these voices bother you?" Sollux asks a bit concerned.

"No," you answer automatically. " I'm okay with them really. They've always been there. And they tell me of things I wouldn't know of otherwise. Things that can't be changed and must happen for everything to go right. If they don't follow exactly... We have to look for Karkat, he needs us."

An cut comfortable silence is followed. You knew it would happen. Not because of the voices but because this always happens when you tell anyone about what you hear. You don't tell them exactly what you hear but it always scares them, and you know knowing what is to come would kill them. You know it's done so to you, at least to some extent.

"So it's like fortune telling?" Tavros suggests, acting as though you hadn't just said something relatively spooky. You smile.

"Not exactly," you reply, "Close but, not quite. It's more of a constant warning. But you never want to know your fortune. Nobody should really want that. Knowing where you start, and where it ends, but there are gaps in between so you never know how you got there."

"Do you know where we end?" Sollux asks hesitantly. You pause and look down at your worn down shoes as you keep trudging.

"Yes," you whisper. "But I'm not telling you."

"Why not?" he asks.

"That's not how it works," you hum as you look up again. "Life isn't fun that way. You'd live with resignation."

"But-"

"Resignation isn't the way you should live by. Enjoy life Sollux. It's better than you think."

"We all die eventually anyway," Tavros mumbles with a nervous grin on his face, "So, what's the point of thinking about death all the time? Wouldn't it be better to just, um, live to the fullest!"

"Tavros got it," you giggle and hold out your hand to get a high five from your best friend who doesn't hesitate in the least.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Sollux grumbles. "I guess there's nothing wrong with that. So where do you think he got himself into?"

"I couldn't say," you muse, "Either he's lying in a ditch or he's on his merry way to the capitol."

"What do you mean lying in a ditch?!" Sollux screeches. "What kind of psychic are you?!"

"First of all, I never claimed to be a psychic," you defend, " Second, you can't expect me to know where your best friend is. He confides in you thinks he wouldn't confide to us. Just like I confide things with Tavros that I wouldn't with you."

"Everybody has that," Tavros agrees.

"No fuck you guys!" Sollux screeches with absolute fury in his honey brown eyes. "That's girl bullshit!"

"But I'm not a girl," Tavros mutters, which goes completely ignored.

"The only thing KK ever told me was that I was a god, awful friend with too many damn issues! Well you know what?! He's a god awful friend even if he was always there! No, wait, fuck, I fucked up. What if he actually did make it to the capitol?! He'll be so screwed! He's a runt and the city will chew him alive!" He quickly falls into that colorful range of emotions from anger, to guilt, to sad and back again. You have to try to get his attention somehow.

"Sollux."

"There's no way he'll make it! but it serves him right! Why did he even leave in the first place?!"

"Sollux."

"Everything was there for him! Tavros said it! We're a pretty okay family! Okay!"

"Sollux."

"It's all your damn fault!" he yells at you, his dirty blond bangs moving dramatically along with his twitchy movements.

"Well, he, uh, quieted down?" Tavros offers and you both just sort of give him a quick glance. " Yeah, I'll just be quiet."

"How's it my fault?" you ask calmly, barely suppressing your indignation.

"If you had thought of what you had said! If you hadn't pressed him!" he spits at you. " Maybe then he wouldn't have left!"

"Are you implying it's my fault?" you demand, a bit of your anger seeping.

"Oh I'm far from implying, I'm full on blaming you for his disappearance!"

"He didn't disappear! He left of his own volition! And he was going to anyway!" you scream. "I guess I was wrong about you being his best friend! If you don't care, or don't want to do things this way, go crying back to your dad, which is something mine would never let me do! It's something Karkat can't do, and maybe you'd know that if you payed attention!"

You drop the bag you took from the boy in front of him as you glare at each other. "Go home, Sollux. Let's go Tavros."

You turn back to the road ahead of you, the only reassurance that Tavros is following you is the quick, running steps that he needs to take to catch up to your brisk speed. Sollux doesn't follow though, he just stays where you left him.

You are seething with anger right now, you can't believe he'd blame you the way he did. Yes, you admit, you were cold about it, but it's not all your fault. Ugh, why are boys so sensitive? If someone's dead, you get over it, you move on with your life, specially when people try to treat you well. You can't force him to feel that way, and maybe you never did treat him well, you knew you scared him too. You always scare everyone and it's something you've come to terms with. No, it's not really something you've come to terms with. It's something that makes you sad and you have no other choice but get over.

"Are you feeling better?" your pal asks. You look up a bit confused.

"Oh, yeah," you say startled, "I just...Tav, why are you guys so complicated?"

"What?" he asks perplexed, "Uh, I don't think we're complicated, maybe we're not as complicated as you'd, um, like us to be? I'm not sure what you mean..."

"It's just, it's so hard talking to you guys sometimes," you sigh, pulling the straps of your pack higher. "Huh, I'm sounding like Karkat, minus the yelling."

"Heh, he did like to speak pretty loud," Tavros chuckles, "I don't know, maybe we all just sort, of, um, get that. Like we feel no one gets us."

"But all the time?" you pout, "Maybe I'm just too weird."

"You probably are," he smiles and you elbow him. "But what's so great about being the same? I never thought it was a good idea...but I guess, that doesn't matter...much."

"That's nice," you grin.

"It's kind of funny," Tavros snickers, " Usually you give me reassurance."

"It's good to know I can count on you for that too then," you say gratefully. "I'm surprised they let us go so easily. well you and Sollux anyway."

"I'm not...Deuce never thinks much of what he does...just sort of um, goes along with it. And you know for me..."his voice just sort of goes up in pitch.

"Hearts demands you be a perfect gentleman," you finish and he shrugs.

"I don't think I do too good on that."

"I think you manage it okay. Considering I'm the only girl you've ever spoken to. Or is there anyone who's taken your heart?"

"What?" his voice cracks, " No, I, uh, What? Of course not!"

"You're so silly," you giggle, patting his shoulder. "I was just kidding."

"So, um, were you serious about leaving Sollux behind?" he asks.

"Of course. He can find his own way, either back home or to Karkat. He's just being a pain in this state. But that's okay, he'll get over it."

"Are you sure?" your firend stammers. You're dark eyes glint menacingly.

"The voices haven't told me otherwise," she hiss and he gulps. You look back at the ground. You're startig to lose your patience. No, you're becoming nervous with the fate you'll meet soon. You hate to think abou it but you know where this trip will lead you. Following the thread is hard, but finding the end of it is never fun, specially when others come tangled with it. No, you aren't too keen on how your story ends. You wonder if the lord really knows what a maess he's caused. A necessary one, but a painful mes regardless.

These thoughts pass your mind constantly as you and Tavros keep walking steadily. Nothing really of interest, though your companion seems to appreciate the birds you have spotted. You like the chirping, it's cheery and rather nice than the constant whispers in your head that only quiet down when you truly wish to ignore them. Then there's one. You grimace. Ugh, why won't they just shut up!

You try to ignore the voice but Tavros grabs your shoulder making you stop and turn to see what is so important that he had to stop. It isn't a voice in your head.

"Are we done with our mood swings?" you tease, crossing your arms in front of your chest.

"Yeah, sorry," Sollux replies rolling his eyes. "I just flipped the fuck out. I'm sorry."

"That's fine," you shrug. "But stop complaining so much...I have nothing against it but it can get rather nerve racking when I myself feel pretty awful. But that's okay, it always passes quickly. No need to be angry, right?"

Tavros smiles at you and Sollux gives you a rather crooked smile.

"Shall we go then?" you suggest, marching on ahead as they follow, trying to catch up. It doesn't stay quiet. You all begin to chitter about just about anything to keep things lively. This is what friends do, fight and then make up.

* * *

A/N: This is a rather short chapter in my opinion and a rather dull one. Sorry. But I wanted to let you guys know that these guys aren't just sitting at home. They started searching for Karkat almost immediately.

Next chapter will hopefully have someone more interesting or to your tastes(more likely mine). Again, sorry.


End file.
